What a joke! What a F*****ng joke!
Le histoire se repete I would say...And Belgium should sink deeper and deeper in shame!
As BelArgUsa pointed out allready, Belgian aviation basically has been a joke since the beginning. ( Btw, I really appreciate your posts mate. I enjoyed reading your posts here and on the flighs safety tread. Myself I am a Belgian flying at the other side of the world as well. I guess we get a clearer view from here dont we?)
Myself I was flying for SABENA untill its demise on 11/2002. We all knew that something was wrong, that the company we where so proud of was fatally ill from the inside. And do not blame it all on SR please, they just acted as a catalysator to speed up the damage allready done to the company by our own governement and its corrupt employees. I would not like to have to feed all the mouths of those who became filthy rich on the back of SABENA.
Anayway, the ineveitable finally happend and the second oldest company sunk, taking most of its darkest secrets with it in the deep!
Out of its ashes arised a new company....SNBA ( Asstail). As said before, the policy abused the situation and took this opportunity to design new rules and regulations for its pilots. In the same move, all of us, the Sabeniens, where kindly asked to leave ASAP!
STOP----SOrry, I forgot to mention that first they pulled the final humiliation act on us by making us believe that if we wrote an application letter BY HAND to the management, begging for a job, we might be rescued!!!!HAHAHA, what a joke! We all wrote it, nobody got hired!
So, the biggest group of Belgian experienced pilots ever left for greener pastures. And it has proven to be our luck. Thanks to the high standards of training and skills we apparently had, most of us found a job with majors all over the world within 2 years.
Now 5 years later, SNBA has proven once more that aviation in Belgian in the form of a national carrier has no future whatsoever! Although they where given all the opportunities to take advantage of the fresh start, they managed to ruin it within 5 years.
Mismanagement and greed caused the airline to become top heavy again. Money, that was not there in the first place as they had to pay it back end of 2007, was spend without a cause. Cars, plasma screens, special treatments......Nothing ever changes!
In the meantime the fleet of aircraft was ageing and needed replacement. The pilots saw that there was no future, except when you where a management pilot. Once more only the happy few where allowed to fly the airbusses. The big masses where kept content on the Avros. Well, thats what they tought..
The critical mistake came when the decision was made to merge the two seniority lists of VEX and SNBA, hereby creating a new airline called Brussels airlines!
Politics kicked in again, with all its consequences!
Some people never learn I guess!
So the pilots started leaving, and rightfully so!
And there is nothing they can do about it....because once more its too late. The cancer has been left festering around for too long! And 7 hours away from home, these pilots can earn 5 imes their salary flying new equipment around, with chances for a real carrer and promotion.
Brussels airlines has become a training organisation for ab initio pilots, looking for their first experience! And maybe a rejuvenation centre as well for retired ex-sabena pilots!
My advise to you guys...for what its worth...
venture out into the real world! Management does not give a damn about you, just like they did not care about us 5 years ago neither! You will be surprised to see what you can find out there!
Your ex-Do did it. And he knows better than anybody else what is going on!
Otherwise, just be patient and prepare yourself for rough times ahead. Because it will take some time before the likes of easyjet will be allowed into EBBR with a base!
Good luck and godspeed!
PS I thought that it actually was a regulation that a DO had to be the holder of a full ATPL and had to fly as a captain for his airline? So how can this FO be the DO of VEX?
PS2 DO has nothing in common with CEO!