As with all companies it is quite easy to find fault, also it is not the most glamorous or well paid company. That said it has many good points which far out weigh the bad points.
At present we have 3 A320 and 3 A321. The current recruitment is for the 7th aircraft which arrives early next year with a total of 10 aircraft planned.
You get 10 days off per calendar month (9 in Feb), 5 weeks leave and 8 bank holidays. Looking back over some representative rosters (i.e. without leave) I average around 16 nights at home and 14 or so nights away per calendar month. The trips vary from 2 days (of which there is 1 a week) to 3, 4 & 5 day trips. A couple of the 4 & 5 day trips have a shuttle in the middle of them, otherwise the trips consist of 2 sectors out then 1 or 2 days layover then 2 sectors home.
Report times are excellent, the earliest report is 12:30 and last arrival back to LHR is around 14:30. The relatively late starts and early arrivals mean that you arrive at the destination in the early hours of the morning and have a wakeup down route sometimes as early as 00:30 U.K. time; however this does mean leaving home late and arriving home relatively early.
Most people average around 550 hours per year so it can be slow building hours, but command can be quick for those people deemed suitable. The hotels in the main are to a good standard and are generally Sheraton, Hilton or Intercontinental. Some layovers can be very quiet depending on the crew whilst others can be very sociable.
As I mentioned before it is not the best paid (I can’t remember the salary scales) but FO starts around £37,000 and Captain around £63,000. Allowances average around £500 per month all in, i.e. no additional flying rate or meal allowances. Pension is money purchase with company contribution of only 7.5%, this rises to 15% for captains after a number of years.
As I mentioned earlier it is very easy to find fault but overall I am very happy there, as are most of the pilots. It is not for you if you don’t like time away from home. The above are obviously my own thoughts and others may give a more negative view however I hope they are of some help. There are certainly worse companies to work for.
