Originally Posted by
KRUSTY 34
Hi shoddy88.
Sounds grim. Word around the campfire is that the ATR experiment has only around 2 years of life left?
We all know about assumption, but what do you think?
Hi Krusty 34,
There are indeed a lot of rumours, but the truth is nobody knows. The only thing Virgin does well is to be completely non transparent. It's a bit like a mushroom farm, you get kept in the dark and fed sh!t.
I think there may be a lot of wishful thinking here. Pretty much everyone (over 95% of crew) would love to see the ATR operation just die. The hope is that we could move over to other fleets under the Virgin umbrella. It's a nice dream that helps people stay sane. It's entirely plausible, but I can't help thinking it sounds too good to be true. I suppose it depends how "uptimistic" you are.
The strongest rumour is that they're waiting to see what the ATSB has to say regarding FVR. It seems that the higher powers are looking to prove that the ATR is unsafe.
Another rumour is that they're going to outsource the flying to Alliance, but we're just waiting for them to get their ducks in a row. Anything is possible.
Originally Posted by Titan Slave
Just wondering, silly question, why are you ATR guys still there? There is an absolute sh*t tonne of jobs going pretty much everywhere I look. Here and abroad.
It's not a silly question at all. Thing is most ATR crew have left, but remember the company just cut the fleet back from 14 to 6. That's less than half the fleet so even though lots of people left, there's still just enough pilots to scrape by. Even so there are ATR's parked against the fence due lack of crew.
Here is a list of a few reasons why there are still people here.
- Have a read of what I wrote above to Krusty. There is a chance that this whole nightmare will come to an end and that gives people pause before leaving.
- Some people like living in Canberra so this job is their only viable choice.
- A lot of people have failed to get into Q or J* and going anywhere else is a pay-cut (especially for Captains). Unless you go overseas, but then family becomes an issue for some (most).
- Most of our FO's are Cadets now and they have no escape option because they have no command time.
- A lot of us believed the lies they told and thought there would be progression. I'm one of the fools who falls into this category.
The list goes on....