I am one of the SAIL Captains. Yes I was a loyal ex Monarch employee, and being British I wanted to fly in my home country. Ex military and 22 years mainly long haul and I’m no where near the most experienced in SAIL. Our experience level smashes Easy and others into another universe. Anyone with any doubts about the ability, and capability of the workforce should spend time in the winter in the US, Canada, Innsbruck etc etc if they doubt our abilities to operate in cold weather. As for standards, as previously said on here, the selection failure rate prior to the demise of Monarch was over 50%, guess what it’s virtually nil now and before you ask, no, not all the examiners are ex Monarch!
Is it fair to SAS Mainline Pilots, possibly not, but my experience of 35 years in professional aviation has shown me clearly the disparity that exists in European airlines and who gets jobs in them. Most UK airlines have many pilots from all European countries. My UK colleagues are basically excluded from all the major European carriers no second third language etc etc. Yes this is the reality like it or not.
Is the airline working? oh yes, we are under a massive microscope and one initial factor is OTP and guess what we are doing better than our mainline colleagues despite the best efforts of the ground based handling individuals to sabotage that. I am one of the fortunate ones in this sorry industry, I fly because I choose to, not because I have to. I do have many friends who are less fortunate and a jobs a job. Ask yourself this, if your mortgage arrears were growing, your wife and children were increasingly upset, would you really not take the SAIL job, based on your principals?
Will it succeed, I don’t know, I’ll have hung my boots up by then, as this is my last (only second) job and I’ll sit back and watch as the reality of the future in this industry unfolds, knowing I had some of the true best of it.