Hi Guys, for anyone considering joining BT I will just give my input here, as it might be useful in your decision making process. I worked for the company for 2,5 years. It is pay to fly, so the airline does not see you as an assest they can work with to generate income, they see you as the income. the financially aspects of the job is, in my opinion terrible, they not only ask for 34000 euro for a q400 rating but aswell for you to work for "free" for 300h, was 500h when I joined. after that you will have a net pay of around 3000-3500 euro but please take into account the roster is terrible, the amount of hours you will spend at work is very high due to their hope and spoke model of operation. You are paid very little for the time spend on the ground in between flights, whichh can easily be a few hours, so again your time for free. Flight time to duty time is in the low 40% and this is not taking into consideration the amount of hours you spend in hotels off duty and out of base, and due to the companies expading policy this will only likely increase in the future, and on the topic of layovers, the per. diems is less than the price of a propper meal, plus no compensation for your time spend on a layover when not flying. the salary is also on average 30% lower than an equal lvl a220 pilot if you look at net pay
pr. duty hour. On top of all this loveliness you are also doing split duty flights, go to work late evening, fly 40min up to Finland, go to a hotel and sleep 2,5h get up and fly back and put your less than 2h block in your logbook, you dont have to be a doctor to realize that this ofc has severe health consequences and in general the company fly at night so you would have to be prepared for that and the health impairment that it brings. days off are minimum in summer month and good luck with getting vacation in the summer aswell, this however is general for the business. Now for the good things, this won't be long don't worry, facilities are to a high standard and there is a pleasant working environment and good colleagues, for expats there is a good camaraderie outside work and Riga is a nice city to live in, it is quit a lively city.
I have tried to be objective here, but I must say it is hard to defend a company using the P2F model and the amounts of people leaving the company is evidence of this, hence them opening their own pilot academy, they are fully aware of the horendous condition, I flow with the no.2 in the company, the person responsible for the finances and asked him critically about the terms, he defended it by sayint that in latvia you have easy acces to beautiful poor women, yes this is the level of professionalism.
for info, it took me 20 month to earn back the 34000 I paid them to operate their equipment however with the 500h "unpaid" flying. this is without taking living cost into consideration for this period. so be prepared for around 2 years of free labour.
My advice would be to only take this job if you have exhausted all other opportunities on the marked.