Puzzler,
Stand united, yes - but how? We cannot stand united against the marketplace as a whole and this is what is getting us.
Elsewhere in Pprune (Scandalous Pay) there is reference to Czech pilots who would be delighted with these pay and conditions. The Czech Republic is a JAA state, so as soon as the EC labour laws change their pilots can come and work here.
I welcome them as fellow European pilots, but to us in UK it is the equivalent of Dyson moving its vacuum cleaner production abroad. Effectively, jobs for UK pilots will simply disappear........
...........unless we adapt, and that means accepting the sort of deal that Jet2 is offering. Like it or not, it may be the only way that UK shorthaul airlines can survive.
MyTravel is already planning another airline downsize for 2007, allowing more outsourcing - guess where will the capacity will come from? Somewhere cheaper than UK.
Scottie, yes I know that eventually wealth will flow eastwards but it will all take time and aviation is so portable that mid-European aircraft and crews will make it to UK faster!