Your correct pilothouse, I just checked.
Cargo boy is spot on though. But we might have to wait longer than 10 years.
Virgin only took experienced pilots with industry experience; it didn’t take the workforce that long to realise that despite Dickey’s charm, wit and charisma they were the lowest paid long haul pilots. No big deal in the early days; three trips a month on the classic, garden party at the boss’s house etc. Nice place to work but not massive money.
Easy to a lesser extent, but they still took relatively experienced pilots who had seen something of airline life before. The attraction to a lot I’m sure was no night flying & home every night. It might have been worth a pay drop compared to charter airlines; the work was nicer.
And I suppose that is where we at Jet2 are now. As pilothouse as pointed out before, it’s not a bad place to work particularly in MAN. Hardly any 4 sector days, decent rosters, crewing and Rostering that go out of their way to help. It’s OK.
But where I think we are different is; we take Captains and FO’s who just don’t have the experience of the industry. We do have some FO’s who have worked in commuter type airlines or in other jet airlines, but for many Channex/Jet2 is their first airline and they know nothing else. They have no experience of BALPA representation and possibly assume Arthur Scargill is a principal negotiator for BALPA. Plus to be fair, many have just paid for their pilots licence and then the type rating; they are on the breadline, some with £100K debts. They can’t afford BALPA.
It’s a similar situation with Captain’s. We do have Capts who do have similar type experience somewhere else, but all that stopped in 2003 and since then we have mainly direct entry RAF Captains new to airlines, Captains with only commuter airline experience on B146, EMB 145, ERJ etc; those promoted from within Channex for whom Jet2 remains their first airline. The point being none of them come from a background where they have experienced the benefits of BALPA representation. It’s an easy workforce to walk all over.
Please don’t think I am making negative comments about pilots of certain backgrounds ability, abilty varies as with any other airline. Also, we have some industry veterans; they are here because of the lifestyle Jet2 offers, for the moment.
So for now we carry on as normal, having a reasonable life. But it wont last, any more than it lasted in VS or EZY. I think the difference is our workforce will be slower to realise this and they might just carry on being shafted and accept it, as they did in their previous lives. It’s surprising really, as stated elsewhere on this thread, we have several examples of how pilots have been shafted before. The F27 fleet disposal and the Airbus fleet disposal are examples. The Airbus pilots already have BALPA to thank. They would have been made redundant when the A300 went, then would have had to re-apply for their jobs and pay for the type rating on B737/757 and would not have been paid during the type rating course. Head Of Legal Service BALPA intervened and the bus pilots were transferred to other fleets. Would the T & G or IPA/IPF achieved this?