Thanks for the change of heart PP. Sounds like you agree - and I was just about to take it personally.
One further factor, your airline sounds like it is going fantastically well – only 7 years to command. Just a word of warning. Three years ago my employer was the most successful in the charter business with grand expansion plans. Now it has just shed one third of its flight crew. Time to command when I joined was 5 years. Now – well considerably longer, if at all. You never know what is going to happen in this business. Additionally, just because top scale pay now is so high doesn’t mean that a someone starting their training now will be as lucky. As I understand Monarch have just introduced a new pay scale for new entrants. With increased competition from central and east Europe I guess this is the way ahead and others will follow.
I would just like to let those folks looking at joining the club know what they are up against. If they are really committed then they may have the determination needed to get through. I just worry that they see the dream not the reality. I would not swap but I do hear too many colleagues, usually in the left seat, who wish they had never got into the business.