Originally Posted by
tecnamflyer
I definitely wouldn't say aer lingus. The place is rumoured to be riddled with CRM issues and an outdated cockpit gradient philosophy. Nepotism is rife from recruitment to promotions. It's more about union/company politics than flying. They run a very tiring 5/2/5/3 roster on short haul, they're launching these narrow A321LRs deep into the USA. They run a comparatively limited route network (compared to the likes of BA etc), plus you pay very high Irish tax, USC and PRSI. All leads to relatively low pay for quite a number of years. The pension is about the only good thing going for the place. People are actually leaving aer lingus, including Irish. This was unheard of in years gone by.
I have to say respectfully disagree with some of that. (Caveat: I do not work for them).
- Roster is 5/3 not 5/2/5/3
- I haven't heard the same CRM issues you mention from many friends I have at the airline apart from the occasional oddball captain which you will get everywhere.
- Tax is high in Ireland but the marginal rate is lower than Spain, France, Denmark, Austria, Netherlands, Portugal and some others because of the recent reductions over the past few years and increases in the standard rate cut-off. Of course you don't quite get the bang for your buck you do in some of those countries in my list...
- Pension is one of the best in the industry.
- Pay-wise I think it's a lot better after the union intervened last year and the 18% increases for current and 30% increase for new joiners happened.
- Agreed that there are more people than normal (including Irish nationals) who have left in the past few years, anecdotally.
It would be good to hear from some people who are actually in the know on the day-to-day in Aer Lingus though and whether it's gotten better than what it was and what the general sentiment is.