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Old 9th Apr 2005, 12:25
  #18 (permalink)  
Big Tudor
Alba Gu Brath
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Merseyside
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Some people can't punctuate because English is not their first language.
Some can't punctuate because they don't know how to.
Some can't punctuate because they can't be @rsed.

Anyway, to the thread. Before I start I am not a MYT manager, just looking at it from another perspective.

MYT is operating in a global market with global economies. The aircraft are viewed as a global asset, when the C-reg (or Scandinavian) aircraft are quiet they come to the UK to operate during the busy summer season. Vice versa, when the UK aircraft are quiet they go to Canada and Scandinavia to operate during their busy period. The alternative to this would be to leave aircraft sitting around during the quieter periods, reducing the crew requirement. Pilots, and particularly captains, are an expensive resource to have sitting around doing nothing, so companies would be forced to look into alternatives such as summer only contracts. The appeal of such contracts to pilots is fairly limited, most people want to be on full time contracts in order to secure mortgages, etc. Therefore it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to secure your required peak numbers leading to crew shortages at the very times that you need them.
An ideal situation would be to have only the aircraft and crew that you need for your winter programme and then supplement these with additional wet leases for your summer work. MYT aren't in this position as their available aircraft and crew capacity exceeds their winter requirement hence the flip flop between UK and Canada. It isn't an ideal situation but the alternative would be further reduction in aircraft and crew to match only the winter numbers, and then entering into the risky seasonal wet lease business.
The other alternative would be summer seasonal promotions for the redeployed skippers, bringing in agency or seasonal F/O's to backfill. But who realistically wants to be a summer captain / winter F/O?
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