Originally Posted by
Mr Mac
Wiggy
As I said I take the point re fire arches but I have seen it done for other retiring pilots for other carriers at other airports,
I have heard of it happening very rarely at one or two of the BA outstations if the captain involved had been a regular visitor over they years, other than that it wasn't SOP.
Once upon a time a proper pilot manager would actually come on board the aircraft on arrival at LHR and give the retiring captain a thank you hand shake, usually done in First Class with the crew present..that died out for various reasons. For while after that there was no "ceremony" at all. In recent years there has been a bit of an attempt to restore some respectability with the picture taking I mentioned earlier.
The gentleman said he had 30+ years with BA and had come back from SA on Monday last week, and was then made redundant, as he did not know it was to be his last flight it did not sound like voluntary redundancy to me, as normally you would apply for that beforehand so would know presumably that this would be your last trip.
Well FWIW I'm another 30+ year Long Haul captain in BA, currently going through the back end of the
voluntary redundancy (VR) process and I didn't realise when I stepped off the aircraft for the last time a few months back that it was my last trip...it's very easily done and the same has happened to a lot of pilots at BA (and probably elsewhere)...sadly some of them don't know it yet..
At BA many pilots had rosters decimated as flights were cancelled due to poor passenger loads, that then resulted with many only maintaining recency by use of the simulator. Offer of VR comes along, and bingo, for many, self included, that's it.....You end up waiting for the exit date and your last sector is a distant memory.
As for the conversation you overheard - Knowing first hand how both the Voluntary Redundancy process and (by word of mouth) how the Compulsory redundancy process for pilots has been done at BA I'm really
really struggling to work out the mechanism by which a 30+ year captain can suddenly find himself in the situation you heard described i.e. Operated a Long Haul trip, day later told he's being laid off....There simply has to be more to it...