WUK Pilot honest thoughts
Pros:
1) Just about acceptable pay as SFO onwards. As FO’s only benefit was that Type Rating was bonded* and paid for, but doesn’t justify the lowest basic salary for an A320 FO in the UK.
2) Mostly 2 sector days with occasional Jeddah / Medinah night stops if you’re LGW based.
3) Day off payments are good
4) Staff travel gives confirmed seats and bags.
5) Colleagues were generally all good, flight deck always very chilled out.
6) Uniform, medical renewal expenses, and crew meals (well..) were all provided.
7) Training department generally really good, and of course they had to be with the volume of cadets coming through.
Cons:
1) Constant roster changes - 15 roster changes in 3 days. Your month that you first saw rostered is NEVER the month you fly. Their excuse was “operational requirements” every month.
2) Excessively relying on variable pay. Distance & landing pay means pressure to try and fly the longest days, fit or unfit, fatigued or well rested. Any roster changes that takes you off your long flight and puts you on standby (unpaid), or short sectors, you just see money down the drain.
3) Fatigue management system. “There will be consequences” or words to that effect when i (and many others) called in to duty manager to report fatigue. With this too, extremely fatiguing rosters are highly likely. Think of a 6 day block, with a Larnaca return trip as day 4 out of 6, which finishes at 2am local time. On the same day, This is then followed by days 5 and 6 as through the night red eye Istanbul turnaround flights landing at around 8/9 am each morning. Care to raise a fatigue concern? Good luck! 😉
4) Job security? Yeah, one of Europes fastest growing airlines but colleagues flying 20-30 hours a month. Paired with a low basic salary & reliance on variable pay - not good!
5) Progression? It’s there. But note that it’s a revolving door and that’s the reason for the fast progression. Young Captains mainly because they generally tried to go other legacy carriers / better low cost airlines and weren’t successful. Golden handcuffs keep them in left seat.
6) Part time roster? Part time pay with full time work.
7) Pension? Not worth the paper it’s written on.
8) Crew meals? Yeah… No ovens. No glamour of china plates and cups here. Visualise a semi cooked, lukewarm pot noodle at 2 in the morning with 6 hours of flying left to go. Yum.
9) Subtle Fear Culture.
No union recognition. Management often said “chat before investigation” and we know where this goes.
A lot of pilots not comfortable to speak out against fatiguing rosters, poor sick pay policies, and generally some Captains who are too company minded and let commercial overtake safety led decision making.
No collective agreements. Some “tick the box” level internal company council group who put concerns forward. Keep your head below the radar, do the job, get the hours and go to your desired airline.
Overall ?
A great choice for the first few years of your career to get some good flying experience, or the last few years of your career winding down after flying for proper airlines. Certainly shouldn’t be in a rush to apply if you’re flying for a proper airline. Jet2 / EZY are much better options for a low cost airline life in the UK.
all views my own, and surely someone will get offended by them!
