In answer to the question raised we are busy at the moment because there has been a lot of movement of TP captains who have initially been flying in the RHS of the RJ back to the LHS. There is a small shortage of crews which was exsasperated over the summer by too many people being given leave at the same time. However, a little bird tells me there is one resignation a week going in at the moment which may increase as the results of ongoing interviews become known. Maybe a good time to get in. But this will mean a buisier time for those like me too lazy and comfortable to move on ! The main problem from my point of view isn't the hard work. Everyone everywhere works hard bu the touring system employed on the RJ in particular. Three or four days away for not much flying (1/2/3 sectors) = lots of hanging around wasting your life !
Tademrotor is right in correcting me about BA BALPA it is not really their position to be for or against us going into Mainline. We all accept that the best we could hope for would be to get in at the bottom of the seniority list so it shouldn't make any difference to them whether we join or not. It is more of a lack of interest in BACX from anyone in BA. They can recruit airbus and boeing type rated people so why take us ? A fair point unfortunately. BUT unfortunately the BA group as a whole is going to lose a lot of good people as a result. With GB starting to throw airbus's around the regions can't be long before they arrive in brum too. Gets round the problem of the RJs without BA having to solve it.
The RJ is not really a bad aircraft it just ain't as good as what the oposition have got ! BA won't let us expand or replace not because of any underhand keep BACX down policy but because any new lease or purchase goes straight down as more debt on their balance sheet. Not acceptable. It's the no win situation we find ourselves in. We just all try to do our best with what we've got.
If we ever do get to replace our fleet it will almost certainly be the new EMB 170s. These could replace the 145s Dash 8s and RJs in one single fleet. Probably a more economic choice than the airbus and both BRAL and Brymon had a good relationship with EMB. However the quote that "an aircraft designed to carry 100 or more" maybe used to block this because the largest of the family the 195 can carry 110. Even if we never bought one ! Hope that's not true because that's what we need to move forward when the finances are right.