Sorry for the thread creap but I would like to add a few things to what Elephant and Castle just warned about.....
St nicholas - great! Looks like you are settled in nicely! Tell that to your colleagues in MAD, MXP, DTM, SXF, ORY/CDG. I'm sure they would agree 100% with you! You keeping that powder dry?!
I am not really criticizing you, I think its nice that you are reasonably happy with your situation. However, there are LOTS of issues that needs to be resolved in ezy. To name but a few; the whole contract shambles in "Europe", the threat (yes it is a real threat!) of loosing our 5354. Loosing company contributed pension. The company argues that people based in DE/SP/FR get state pension, but to qualify for state pension you need to stay for 5+ years in most countries. So if you decide to leave your base, or indeed if the company would close your base and offer you a job in another country, your pension for the past x years would be - history. Further there is a real threat of the company moving towards opening bases in eastern Europe where they can cut personnel costs. This is very difficult to stop, and probably stupid to try to stop, as we all would like the company to be successful, however, this will bring with it a few things worth noting. You can probably forget any future commands in ezy UK. You want a command? You move to xx and we will offer you a industry standard package. Wizzair pays a captain E 40.000 basic pay at the moment (ppjn.com). When there will be future expansion in UK, pilots will be hired in a future low cost base and then flown in to operate out of a UK base. Our CEO was quoted recently saying something along the lines of; I do not believe in rewarding employees for loyalty. Well, that's our bonus, and 15 % of your pay, gone.
At the moment there are lots of companies in the US that are going bust and stopping their recruitment. Once this will hit Europe, and we will have more qualified pilots available on the market, the company will try to force these changes. If we play hardball and try to resist, they can always tell us that we can pack our stuff and be gone. All they have to do is hire another few guys in a new low cost base.
Interesting times ahead, and we will have to be very careful how we play our cards over the next 6 - 18 months.