When Manx first took Loganair over, LC pilots all went to the bottom of the list and stayed there. There was all the same hot air about moving to other jobs, however, then, as now, the numbers didn't add up. There are jobs about to be sure, but not hundreds of them, not to mention the geography and family lives of people concerned. It was much much later, (rightly or wrongly) when Brymon came along, and Logy and Brymon people filled the BALPA CC (again, rightly or wrongly, cos the Manxies could have stood but didn't) that a deal joining the seniority lists was sorted which was fair to everyone except the perception of the Manxies. (Understandably)
In this case though, all you have to do is consider what YOU would think if you were about to lose a place on an Emb 190 course, or a move to the LHS, both with attendant money.......or even if such a move suddenly changed from being a year or so away to being off the radar - turkeys do NOT vote for Xmas. What we must be careful of not shifting all the angst, the bitterness, the righteous indignation about sold down the river, (with or without our crap 'designer' uniforms) onto Flybe. They have the whip hand, and they will not give up their own Ts and Cs anymore than Manx did to begin with. To spout rubbish about everyone going off to find another job is just that that, RUBBISH! Otherwise as we all well know, we would have done that two, three, four years ago when the ineptitude of the Evans/DLF/Hutchings team became apparent. Spare athought for the BALPA guys and girls. Insisting on unrealistic demands won't help their best efforts. Spare athought for Flybe - in due course their senior management and pilots will be meeting us, are we really going to behave like spoilt kids whose playground is closing, or are we going to at least try to behave like professionals. This is the real world guys, and we've been in Regional Aviation to see this happen - a lot! So let's wake up, smell the coffee, and accept this is a much better deal than WW closing the outfit down. It has been inevitable since we were bought. Flybe has GOT to be a step forward, and while there may be plenty of jobs out there, there are also plenty of wannabees seeking their first step into airline jobs. Good luck to the ones who try to leave - I also remember the ones who ran out the dorr shouting hurrah who were subsequently chopped, and tried to come back with their tails between their legs. I have to say the Flybe option looks much more attractive than being a 10 airplane operation wholly owned but not integrated into BA. Particularly as it will be top-heavy with PH etc, good god, what a prospect. I am buying into the Flybe game with both hands!
..............and it may be energy better spent sympathising and supporting all our admin and ops and engineering colleagues who may not quite have the luxury of the options we are being offered!