That, incidentally, included senior First Officers with a lot of hours who were being looked at by Aer Lingus as DECs.
Norman, you are incorrect here. Unless or course the First Officers you are referring to had previous command experience in a previous airline before joining easyjet they would not have been considered for Direct Entry Commands. For starters they would have to meet the requirements of a recently revised company ops manual partly to cover this very issue. In this it now clearly states that a DEC must have either 500 hours jet or 1000 hours turboprop command time as a very minimum to be eligible. Otherwise it's simply a non runner. Even then, I would be of the opinion that they would have to be current serving captains to be considered for a DEC postion. I would also be of the opinion that some of your colleagues to whom you spoke would have done some research on the structures in place in EI allowing them to return to the ROI at some stage in the future. Based on the following agreed information between Aer Lingus and it's pilot body, which would have been available at interview stage or before, I would suggest that is more likely that many of these would have turned down the opportunity to join based on this rather than simply the risk of joining the company in it's new base. Of course I can also understand them wanting to stay in a good and secure company like easyjet, but as they don't have an ROI base as yet an opportunity like this may not come up too often.
24 captains were required for the base initially. It has been rumoured that only 18 internal candidates applied despite the fact that somewhere in the region of 500 odd current pilots in the company, including those in command postions at the moment are eligible for these advertised positions. The sticking point for people is that you are effectively base frozen for five years, with no chance of a return to Ireland during that time. When you do return the seat you sit in is then still dependent on your seniority in the company. If you are within five years of command in Dublin, you would come back as a captain. If not, then you will simply come back sitting as a First Officer again until you are senior enough in relation to your colleagues to retain that postion. This is an agreed written position between the company and it's employees and applies to all current pilots in all bases and future joiners. The only base outside the Republic of Ireland is in Belfast at the moment. This agreement allows all pilots in Belfast and in particular the captains who joined as DEC at the time and also those who chose to be considered for promotion at the time, the opportunity to take up command positions in the ROI in the future should they so wish.
In reality if you were an individual looking to join as a DEC with a future plan of returning to Ireland in either a Dublin/Cork base, looking at the current progression and based on the fact that you will be joining at the bottom of the company seniority list it could be as much as 10 years plus before you are senior enough to get back as a captain. Of course if a Republic of Ireland base is not on an individual's wish list in the future then the above is irrelevant. As an aside I only differentiate between the UK and ROI bases purely in the context that they are both different contracts.
FInancially the package on offer in LGW is at best average. For all First Officers in Dublin/Cork a pay cut is essentially what will happen if they were to take a command position in London. This of course dosen't make sense unless of course you are a recent joiner to the company with the required experience and are from the London area and are looking at the possibility of getting home.
In terms of recruitment, the company have re-advertised for captains internally again in the past few days despite continuing interviews. The revised terms now state that you will be seconded and base locked for three years instead of the five previously. From this I take it that they are pushing again for internal candidates first, followed then by external captains. As the close out date for new internal applications is yet to pass, I would suggest that they are waiting to see it there is a new response before offering any further jobs to those interviewed already.
I haven't heard any rumours of the base not going ahead as suggested above. All routes seems to be bookable on the website. I do agree however that is a very brave decision, if you can call it that, to expand into Gatwick in what could now be considered a saturated market. A couple of months ago I was of the opinion that it was a good decision. Financially the company can afford to take some risks, but looking at it now it may be a risk too far in the current environment. Perhaps a baton down the hatches mentality would be far better served in the short term.