Easyjet Madness

[Count of Monte Bisto]

Chauderon - do not worry about disagreeing with my views on easyJet and diversity. Everyone disagrees with everyone else on this subject and that is just the nature of the beast!

Very few people have an entirely rounded view of aviation. It is almost impossible to have a career that encompasses, say, British Airways, easyJet, Cathay, Emirates and Yemenia! I am sure that someone, somewhere will prove me wrong, but we are all fundamentally limited in our complete experience of the industry. We can therefore say, 'You do not know any better, and therefore through ignorance of the wider world you like easyJet (insert Ryanair, Qatar, Emirates, Jet2, Virgin etc, etc as required)'. Also, better the devil you know in may cases. The slight problem with the view that says the best place to work is the place that suits you is that is not really dealing with the issue of folks looking for potential change. For example, you may be like EpsilonVaz above and fundamentally recognise the benefits of working for easyJet, but still have your head over the parapet and looking for something better, more interesting, different aircraft type, transfer to long haul etc. That is entirely normal and actually quite healthy. At different stages over the last 20 years I too have filled-in forms and started the process of leaving, but in the end my more rational self has led me to staying here. It is now too late and I am very comfortable seeing out the last 18 months of my working life here. As I reflect back on my own journey, which involves 5 different airlines and the RAF before that, easyJet has been the right place at the right time for me, and is overall one of the better choices of airline to work at. That is completely irrelevant to everyone else as they will all have different experiences. Ask anyone who has been unemployed, or worked for some hideous contractor, and they will tell you how relieved they were when they eventually got a job at a 'mainstream' airline. Equally, if you listen to some guy who got a job at BA aged 20 and ended up as No 12 on the seniority list flying 747's, you often get a sense of entitlement as they simply never knew what is was to struggle - basically a fantastic career was handed to them on a plate.

I can only tell you that, although I have not worked for the myriad airlines out there, I have taken a massive interest in the unbelievably varied range of pilots passing through the training system here at easyJet. We have had a number of presidential pilots - varying from Sarkozy's personal A340 pilot through to the B727 First Officer for the President of Burkino Faso in Ougadougou! We have had contractors for Afriqiyah Airways in Libya, pilots from Small Planet right through to the personal pilots on Gulfstreams working for Russian Oligarchs to take them to their various gambling appointments round the globe. At one stage we had numerous ex-BA captains forced to retire aged 55 and who had several previous wives to cater for and therefore needed to work to 65. Some of those were also very happily married, but just liked flying and did not want it to end early. Round that time we also picked up a number of ex-Cathay 49ers who woke up one morning to find out they had been fired and had to leave Hong Kong sharpish! We have had ex-military pilots who have flown everything from Tornados through to US F15's. We have had at least one ex-Concorde pilot and at one stage we had a wonderful ex-Harrier pilot who was taken prisoner during the Falklands War after being shot down during a ground attack sortie. The reason I say all this is that easyJet has historically had an incredibly eclectic mix of pilots - I have loved hearing their tales of different lives. Sure, I have not walked in their shoes, but we all at least got to hear of their experiences. Where it has left me at the end of my career is to feel a genuine sense of privilege that I have worked at easyJet, with its safety culture and genuinely supportive environment, if you do your bit. As I have stated many times before, it is not perfect and there is a whole other world out there - as a number of excellent contributors have pointed out. There is not a perfect airline out there - at least not one that was ever available to me! As I look round the world, if you can get into Delta, United or American at a young-ish age, that is about as near to Air Utopia as you can get. Even these big players, however, are potentially fraught with difficulty as they have all had furloughs, inconvenient base allocations based on seniority etc. If I am honest, although I cannot fault our selection system, it is somewhat bland. The range of pilots we used to have are being replaced by vast numbers of keen young folks coming through from CAE and L3. We are interviewing some very interesting DEPs from the likes of Air Astana, TAP etc (very good they are too), but they are not coming in big numbers. The bottom line is that, if you can get in here, there are a whole lot worse places to be and not that many that are massively better. It is always hard to argue with the undoubted merits of national carriers like BA, Air France or Lufthansa, but the reality is that these type of places are rare beasts to get anywhere near for most of us. Also, there are long seniority lists that require great patience before hitting the jackpot in later life. There are no perfect answers, but there are some absolute shockers - easyJet is not one of those. Also, lurking out there, if you can find them, are also some very interesting and enjoyable options that can scratch the itch most us get at some stage in our career. In my humble experience, such as it is, there are very few revolutionary moves up the ladder in aviation - mainly more evolutionary, with small changes that are generally for the best - but even that is not guaranteed! I hope it works out well for you all, whatever path you follow.