Indeed, anyone who wishes to start their contract on time may do so, so to think that people have been fobbed off until February is untrue, the cynics get carried away with their inventive thoughts there. It must be either that they wish to see hundreds of people down the Job Centre or accepting careers with the masses at the main competitors. We see airlines all the time offering deals to staff to take some free time off, to take up-paid leave etc, so what is the difference here?
At many US companies, we see the harsher way of dealing with "down-time", 100s of thousands laid off at American and United Airlines. This is not the case with NOW. The last thing NOW want to do is deal with people as numbers on the balance sheet. NOW recognises that their people ARE the airline and so wish to treat the "down-time" sensibly and with a view to future staff loyalty.
I find it truly puzzling how fellow aviation colleagues wish to see an airline fail. Is it blind loyalty to their present airline? I wonder how their current employers would feel if they could see how these cynics wish fellow colleagues failure. How destructive these cynics are.
Many on here are supportive of a new venture, I am glad though that I will not be in contact on a day to day basis with those cynics. They seem to have a "give in to circumstances" mentality. Would their NITS briefing go, "No time to do anything, we're all going to die, lay down and give up, we can't do anything, prepare to crash, enjoy heaven".
I plan to be optimistic about the situation, it is obviously this trait in me that has made me successful in life, and a trait they obviously saw in me at interview stage. Once again, I wish NOW well.