What is going on at EZY?

[Norman Stanley Fletcher]

Stan - To say I know nothing about the easyJet 'cult' is not correct and is somewhat insulting as like you I have a brain and was not born yesterday. EasyJet is the 5th airline I have worked for and overall is as good as any of them. I gladly assume you are an experienced professional pilot with knowlege of both easyJet and the industry as a whole - it would be not unreasonable of me to expect the same courtesy in return. Like so many threads on PPRUNE there is always the danger of denegrating those who differ in opinion from your own to the ignorant, ill-informed and foolish. Sadly that is what sometimes lowers the tone of discussions here unnecessarily. Regarding being 'factually wrong on 2 counts' I am not sure which ones you mean but if you are referring to the discussion on the ezy pilot caught for drinking & flying, then if my failing is to want damaging allegations made on an anonymous forum to be substantiated I am happy to be wrong every time. You may also be interested to know that I have had a private mail conversation with Astro Dominie about this issue (he kindly wrote to me) but I remain unconvinced of the accuracy of what was stated regarding previous alleged cases. If I am subsequently proven wrong - so be it, but I wish to be one who waited for evidence rather than hearsay. We will have to agree to differ.

Many of you do have some fair points but I cannot agree with all of them. You are absolutely right that at Gatwick there is an excess of pilots (+10 over establishment in captains and about +13 I am told among FO's at the moment) but it will go down in the next few months. A lot of Airbus line training is also done there which lowers the flying for line-trained crews. Inevitably, as you rightly point out, that means that we 319 pilots have a better lifestyle than the 737 pilots elsewhere - for which I am very grateful. There is also no doubt that the nature of easyJet is that, depending on which base you work at, you are effictively working in an independent airline whose work pattern and lifestyle bears little resemblence to those of other easyJet pilots elsewhere. In the same way that you can only go on your experience at your particular base, I can only go on mine at my base. Inevitably there will be differences in our perception. Another factor is that the Airbus is a lot less tiring environment to work in over 4 sectors (that is not to ignite the Boeing/Airbus debate - it seems the universal view of all ex-Boeing pilots).

There is clearly an issue over rostering that needed to be addressed. My argument is that in fairness to the company there is a genuine desire to get it right within the constraints that the company has to work with. I simply cannot agree with the 'conspiracy theorists' who seem to see some shady group of managers up at easyland devoting their waking hours to working out how to best destroy our lives! I believe that the 5/2-5/4 system is a sincere attempt to address the rostering concerns of the pilots at easyJet.

There are, however, 2 big issues that stand out to me which may prove fatal to the final acceptance of the plan. The first is that we have a large number of foreign pilots who use their 3 days off to go home and the 5/2 part of the proceedings is very unattractive to them. The second, and I think more pressing problem, is that we now only have 2 blocks of leave in each period (Summer and Winter) compared with 3 previously. My own view is that may prove to be the sticking point.

I do have to ask all you guys/gals out there who have published anti-easyJet gripes over 5/2-5/4 on this thread just one question. Are you LTN/EDI-based crews who have actually experienced 5/2-5/4 or are you just going on gut feeling? I am LGW-based and can therefore fairly be accused of not having experienced the new system. I have however taken the precaution of canvassing the opinion of people who have and the view I am hearing is that it is an improvement over 6/3 and a massive improvement over random rostering. Over to you.....