A lot of rubbish was spoken by a lot of people last year regarding GSM.Turned out that the bookies, rather than planet reality, was the source of their predictions for the future.
To answer you questions (I can only speak for the 737 fleet).
Yes JM is still the Fleet Manager.
The company has downsized by ditching the Classics and -600s /closing the Teeside base. We now have a fleet of newish -700s / 800s.If you look at the CAA stats for aircraft utilisation (hours / day) and percentage load factors we are up there with the best.
I have no inside information as to how things will develop but the general feeling is that their will be more ACMI work in the future. The remainder of the fleet concentrating on core activity from Scotland.
If you want to fly during the winter we were in KL last time and Muscat 2008/2009....32 degrees here at the moment
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You will generally work very hard in the Summer ( but Nov through to April the rosters are fairly slack). We have an excellent rostering guy on the 737 and he has a track record of doing what he can within the confines of management productivity requirements.
There are people being tempted away by the many 737 opportunities abroad. Some of the guys (myself included) had our Liverpool / Stansted / Teeside bases closed and are struggling with the commute. If you want to live in Scotland though the long two sector days, which are our bread and butter, make for a half decent lifestyle...just don't expect to get a BA salary.
If you want some variety many of our people have operated the 737 in four out of five continents.
As for the future.
Security wise ...the 737 ACMI and the 767 long term contracts mean the company is well placed to survive the recession.
There is a declared aim to promote from within...and,as things stand,Boeing are scheduled to put together two Dreamliners for us in a couple of years.
Any fool can criticise, and most fools do...so don't listen to much of the junk that is likely to follow from people outside the company. Next time you are up in GLA / EDI / ABZ grab one of the guys and get it from the horses mouth. Right..got to go now...pool is calling!