Being a Captain on a RYR direct contract I don't know really anything about contract options they offer to new FO. But from what I hear from my very very young collegues in the cockpit they are sometimes ending up with a salary of a directly employed RYR captain which is awfully good for a green boy learning to fly an airliner imho.
The 737 is THE MOST unergonomic aircraft I have ever flown in my life. And I was PIC on the entire CRJ series(beautiful cockpit, excellent PFD, MFD, and fantastic EICAS that I miss most on this 1960's style 737, even they added some sceens to make it look better), A300-600 and as well a "jungle jet"(ERJ145, miserable aircraft, cockpit still better then the NG one). Most likely this cockpit(including this very very bad seats) will make me change eventually on an Airbus again.
For a first job I would not overrate the cockpit, especially the 737 is an much easier to understand aircraft as an Airbus(after all they ARE designed by french which always prefer the more complicated then easy solution :-) ), nice to fly as well. Even that the RYR way of flying them has not much to do with real flying, but that is another story and not important for a newby.
Base. Well, I have seen a lot of "out of base" FO going through my base(which was my first choice, so easier for DEC to get their base of choice, of course) but on the other hand a lot of them told me that they are sitting already at their base of choice or expecting a transfer very soon. RYR realized that they have to get moving otherwise they will loose even more pilots. Putting them in the base they want to be is one of the steps they are doing.
Met a former collegue which left our old company to go to Vueling(BCN base) but then decided to join RYR. He said it is still much better then Vueling for him(just to mention that, have no comparison).
In a nutshell: RYR offers:
- better pay
- i think cadets dont need to pay anymore for TR, just bonded
-normally fast base transfer
- "easier" aircraft
- better roster(fully agree, the 5/4 is fanstastic AS LONG you are at your homebase. If you need to commute it might get VERY exhausting)
Hope I could help. I did not mention RYR management, I think everyone in the business knows this guys. They promised they will change, I would be careful with that. My expectations are low, but hey, wonders do happen from time to time, right?
