Funny, I scanned this quickly and missed my name in the leading message a couple of times. I guess it was all the whiney ohhh the pilots are evil ungratefull SOBs that made me blow right through the message.
The airworld managment was EXCELLENT at instilling a team spirit. When we arrived in Manchester at the 4 seasons in early 98, Dewey and Saville came to breakfast with us, and welcomed us aboard, explained who they were and where they wanted to be etc. They admitted that they were undercapitalized but that they were hoping to grow. They instantly melded us into the team and we got along famously. Everyone who was there for the first season considers it to be the high water mark for their treatment (treatment is a lot more than just compensation). Bob Willis and Jon Bailey were both available to answer questions (should we tanker, tech problem with the aircraft, whadda we do now? etc..) that were completely lacking in the FCL regiem. Finally in year 3 a tanker chart came out. Big deal...
Unfortunately you can't see good treatment on a balance sheet. In season 2 and 3 they didn't say a word to us except through Daryl when we were bad to spank us. Not even a thank you when we left. So you know what? To keep us coming back they had to poney up a lot of money. Well guess what? it still aint enough! lots of people, not just me are voting with their feet. I didn't even have an application in at another airline after the first season. It wasn't untill the FCL experience that I applied to AA.
So yes, JMC pays more now. Its still a pittance. And since they smashed the team spirit and the FUN of Airworld (which, doesn't show on a balance sheet, but the sheet WAS positive) the only thing that a pilot can measure is their compensation. Its still inferior. Sorry dude.
And two weeks on two weeks off? Yeah, right, only when we get around to it. The month of May is always gone, and now they took the overtime away for it. So instead of getting over time in May, the pilots get Parks checks and get to pay for their own accomodation. Big deal.
I can continue if you like? How about the stupidity of standardizing an airbus on boeing cockpit procedures? Yeah, that's safe. As FCL pilots were not dual qualified to fly both types of planes, that was just arogant we are smart than you tripe. And its was LESS SAFE. It completely ignored the strengths of the 320, and basically threw 8 years of institutional experience out the window. That kind of knowedge is priceless. The fact that Min Brown and others stood for that crap and didn't leave is just pure luck on your part. Not skill, and they could not have been replaced.
So anyway. Lets just sum it up shall we? That brilliant management that you are cheering for, spends millions of pounds a year placating a pilot group that they might have kept happy by simply having breakfast with em to welcome them to the team?
As to the visionary management team. I think the vision was Airworld's, they set up the US rotation to keep the utilization of the aircraft up. JMC just takes the credit for it.
Yeah, that is smart managment. JMC is a good place to be FROM.
Cheers
Wino
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