Pretty certain that 150 DEP's to start end Summer04. DEP's can only go to LH once all the SH guys who want to go to LH have moved. The EXCEPTION to this are the guys who have done less than 5 years in the company because they are not fully part of the internal bidding system, their bids are frozen. To be honest all the guys with 5 years under their belt that wanted to go to LH are already there.
That means that type rated pilots on Airbus, 777, 747 will be required in big numbers as we are short on all fleets.
The pay is as good as it has ever been and for those at the bottom of the seniority list it is by far the best it has ever been. All fleets work very hard these days but that seems to be industry wide.
Pension...this is still under negotiation but BALPA have promised a strike ballot if a FSS pension is not offered to new joiners. It is looking likely that the accural rates may be increased to help offset the problem that NAPS has at the moment. But you will have the chance to work past 55 so it's not all doom and gloom. Put your money on FSS pension paid at 56ths (as opposed to 52nds)
Command times..well you will have to do your time in the trenches. Nobody joining today (but things always change in this biz) will get a command for at least 12-14 years. LH commands will probably never be an option to those joining unless they are well below 30. You need to be in the top 1200 to get a LH command and BA has about that amount below 30 already working for them.
Another bad point is that BA can do what it likes with you for the first 5 years. That's the rules. We have plenty of pilots who were recruited to fly 777/747 (actually written on their contracts) only to be told this had changed the day they entered Cranebank. BA couldn't really give a stuff about your old type rating once you start and this makes very little difference to the training that you will do. (In lots of ways it is easier to train guys who aren't type rated but thats for another thread.) The reason they want type rated guys is that this means people aren't joining just to get a type rating, remeber there is no bond with BA. So thats something worth baring in mind, you join the airline not a specific fleet. You have been warned.
Good luck to all those that apply.