Its a god thing
Lots of bitterness here guys. From both sides by the looks of it. First of all I have to say that as a Q400 Capt I thorougly enjoy my work. Yes it is sometimes lots of it. This month I do 5/2/6/2/5/2/6/? The 2's are the days off and they are all late finish, early start. Not ideal by a long shot, but hopefully this will change with you guys joining us. Yes I mean joining and not taken over. Thats my way of looking at it anyway.
Apart from the fact tha we make money and you dont. You are briniging a huge asset to Flybe with your routes and experience. I for one welcome the situation. Not because we loose a competitor, but because we gain a lot.
Some may say that we worked hard to make Flybe what it is today and therfore we should not be disadvantaged by loosing out on seniority. The same is true for you guys and when we all merge it is all of our combined efforts over the past years that will form the new company.
I dont believe the new seniority list should be done by date of joining. From what I hear (It may not be true) that would be too much of an disadvantage for us in Flybe. Equally I dont think drawing a line in the sand and put you behind all of us is fair either.
Both companies have about 350 pilots. So personally I think a merging of the seniority list's by number in seniority is the way forward. I.e. number 1 on your list becomes number 2 on our list. Number 2 on our list would then be number 3 and 2 on your list would be number 4 and so on.
By doing this I for one would all the sudden get a lot more people in front of me, but I would also have a lot more people behind me. The proporsion would remain the same.
As for those who left BA Connect and joined Flybe. Starting to make special considerations would make it all messy. It would definately upset anyone in Flybe being put back by someone who joined after them. After all They made the decission to leave and joined another company. Losing you place on the seniority list is part of that. Thats just life.
I for one welcome the news and would like to say Welcome to our company. We all have to work together to make it work and we all have to make some concessions.
BA is also giving Flybe a lot of money to take on BA Connect. I heard in the region of 120-150M. Can't vouch for the accuracy of this though. Thats why they are getting the 15% share.