Re: Ryanair Pilot shortage hits crisis Point?
IMHO - This is the lo-co's own fault i'm afraid - i presume the problem here will be getting Capt's to fill the seats!! A good mate of mine flying TP's tells me that ALL the capt's he flies with would be off to the lo-co's tomorrow (in either seat!) if only they would bond them rather than pay for a (example) 737 type rating . Thus in a year or so you've got an experienced person ready to jump into the LHS and still bonded to you for a certain period of time - if these airlines had the foresight a year ago to do this rather than looking at ££ signs everywhere , they would not be in such a potential mess now!
The charter carriers still bond people which is why some top quality TP pilots are starting courses with them this very week - i can't help thinking though that a good number of these maybe would have ended up at ryr/ezy/gsm/exs etc had these carriers not insisted on these pilots paying for a rating.
Just my 2p's worth , what do the rest of you think!?