And another thing....
As Trapper rightly says there's no license pay. So in effect there is no incentive for potential candidates to study for licenses as the only pay increase they get is when promoted to the LAE grade (which tends to be 'dead-mans-shoes' unless they're avionic trade ).
This was the position I found myself not so many years ago & I was actually being paid less than a BMA holder until a vacancy appeared. Is this a similar situation with other airlines ? Me thinks not.
Currently , BA is reducing the no. of staff employed in the 3 fleets ( about 230+ in Fleet 1 alone ) through what they call " natural wastage " so there is alot of streamlining going on at present.
The shortage of Engineers both licenced & unlicenced is a fact but not in all areas. Dare I say it , some areas are actually top heavy with licensed personel so on paper the figures probably don't look that bad but because the 3 fleets & the many areas within those fleets don't move their staff around to fill the gaps so some areas will always be worse off than others.
So it would appear IMHO that the management arn't that bothered about people leaving yet but as history has a tendancy to repeat itself & management let most of their experienced Engineers migrate to pastures new with the eventual impact that will have on the operation then & only then will they do anything about it.
[This message has been edited by Ali Crom (edited 12 April 2001).]