Hey folks
Easyjet and Ryanairs passenger numbers are rising. At the airport I work at, EZY has 8 flights a day, and on weekends they have 9 flights. Each flight comes in with a 90% load factor at least. However this is due to the fact that EZY, when the fuel crisis kicked in, decided that they would chase load factors in order to keep their shares up. EZY have lots of cash in their pocket so they can afford to be less profitable for a year or two, in the interest of keeping high load factors on their flights. Other airlines decided to add fuel surcharges and their load factors have gone down. Same goes for Ryanair, they decided to cover the losses in other ways (grounding a/c, no bonuses for management.... etc..)
To get back on the topic, I dont understand why people are freaking out about this. Speaking to some older friends, who were doing their CPL's during the early/mid 1990's, they were telling me how difficult it was to find a job then. Then there were literally half the airlines there are today, and options for finding a job were SEVERLY limited in many parts of Europe. Now the only problem is the investment. However, I believe there is an upturn and there has been for years now. Two low cost airlines in Europe need about 400 pilots each in 2009 to cover their expansion plans... I dont think that has happened before... You have more bizzjet and pvtjet jobs available than ever before, and now many airlines in Europe give jet jobs to youngsters with 250hrs! That was a dream come true before 2000. Chin up people. Follow your dream and be flexible...
SVoa