GGV, you raise some points that are valid & I can't address each & every one of them it is true. It is also true of many other carriers who will try anything that they get away with to rip off the pilot work force. To attempt to answer some of your points:-
I was rated on the 737 when I joined & did not pay FR for an interview, or a sim ride or for my LPC. A former colleague of mine (who failed the sim check) also did not pay them a penny & he only had about 100 hours on the 737-300.
No one in FR tried to 'bond' me as I was already rated, this is not the case with Jet2 who have the cheek to apply a £5,000 bond if an already type rated pilot leaves them within the first year & this bond doesn't decrease during the 12 months. Their pay & rostering are total crap from what I hear. With FR we get a fixed roster pattern & a salary, all in, of approximately £58,000 per annum.
GGV, name me an airline who hasn't left pilots out to dry. Go on, just one. Name me an airline who hasn't kicked it's people in the balls when it felt it had to commercially.
So many people start to knock FR who have never even spent a day working with us. We have an excellent team of TRI/TREs & training Captains & our SOPs are sound, they have to be. We will also be around for a long time to come so if Gonnabe wants to join a progressive &, yes, sometimes aggressively marketed airline then he could do far worse than Ryanair.
