There is a lot of unnecessarily negative talk about GB here. The talk among MDs etc is not any different from the talk that is going on in every boardroom in every airline in the UK today. Everyone is under pressure to make ends meet. No one makes money in the winter - at easyJet there was a Winter loss of over £40m (the worst in our history) and there will be an overall profit at the end of September that is again the best in our history. That is the way that European airlines work. All this talk of '90 hours a month' is not really accurate - bearing in mind the 775 hours limit per year at GB and the overriding 900 hours a year set by the CAA you can do your own calcs to work out how many hours you will be doing each month on average. You may do the odd 90 hour month but you will not be doing that every month of your working life.
For any discenchanted pilot at GB, I can assure them that they would work a whole lot harder at easyJet or Ryanair. You also get 14.5% pension, private healthcare and the BA travel concessions. In truth the package at easyJet is somewhat better overall, even if taken over 15 years, but a 4 sector day at easyJet is more tiring than the standard 2 sector GB day. Both companies have much to commend them and although the 5254 rostering pattern at easyJet is much derided, it is still better than random rostering. There is really no reason why fixed pattern rostering could not be brought to GB as I think it would be very attractive in the long term. That having been said, GB is still a pleasant place to work and if you can cope with the 'medium haul' element of the flying then it is hard to argue with. Personally, I prefer the short sectors at easyJet but this is only a personal opinion.
Just out of interest can anyone at GB tell me the current duty pay amount and what part of that is tax free? Many thanks.