Another question... why don’t all the Ryanair pilots go on strike together and demand better conditions- Senior managers at Ryanair may threat to sack all the workforce however it would take months to bring in new pilots up to standard
Hi there.
With regards to hours. At the moment that is what is happening. With 300 cadets sitting in the holding pool and waiting to give Ryanair £20,000 odd pounds to do a type rating in Ryanair's own sims, and then go straight onto a Brookfield contract, I guess they will continue cutting hours for a very long time. I have done around 600 hours this year, and getting paid on an hourly rate and having to pay training costs back, life if tight.
In response to the question about going on strike, I believe it is illegal to strike unless it has been agreed by a union, and Ryanair pilots are not in a Union. The best that could be done is working to rule. I think that is pretty much what Swissport the Ground Agents did last summer. It caused a nightmare. Not sure if it worked.
In my opinion, (which doesn't count for much), make sure you get the uni degree. It is something that can never be taken away from you, and the major carriers almost require something to put you ahead of the rest of the pack, especially if it is related to the industry. You never know, as a friend of mine did, he worked in Ops for a while before getting a job flying with the same company. Helped him out hugely knowing the important people in the company before getting into the plane. (Never hurts in an industry of "who you know, not what you know").
In 3 years time, things might be different, and the economic problems may have started to go. Look at the flight training then, because don't forget it will be another 2 years on top of that until you have finished the Integrated course. And out of interest, why an integrated rather then modular. Join the UAS whilst at uni and get the RAF to pay for it. I would look at RAF long before commercial aviation.
Some food for thought.