Leo hasn't worked for 'squalid' unionised Monarch, evidently!
No, you're right, he hasn't. But then, if he DID work for an organisation whose only reason for existence is as a money-laundering outfit for the Sicilian mob, no extra curricular memberships would make any noticeable difference anyway. I mean, good heavens chaps, you might just as well give your membership money to a troupe of Chinese lesbian plate spinners for all the good it does you. What Monarch pilots want, they get. You call that effective unionisation do you? I call it consensual rape. But eh, don't rocka da boat.
Alibaba, what a louche chap you are!
Not content in pretending that BALPA is the answer to every maiden's prayer at Ryanair, you've not only misrepresented the facts as they are on the ground in an attempt, quite maliciously, to provide disease and its cure in one mighty bluster, but you've evidently developed a fondness for twisting my words and meaning too, in trying to truss up your wafer thin argument!
Well, we'll see about that.
Thank you. Not quite what you meant, I suppose, but since English is evidently not your preferred method of communication, I'll take my compliments where I can get 'em.
what the situation is in RYR as a line pilot compared to most union recognised, respected professional pilots flying for other comparable UK or European airlines.
This is where you're thinly spun hokum begins to unravel. Need I remind you that I actually DO work for RYR, whereas you, clearly, do not. I'm well acquainted with the terms of contract, both permanent and external. Comparable UK or Euro airlines, you say? There aren't any. If anything, our very existence and wild success is testimony to what can be achieved WITHOUT parasitic yanker's workshops like BALPA/IALPA and all the other PA's. Like many pilots not at their first rodeo, I have friends and colleagues in all the European majors and UK airlines. Ask an Easyjet pilot what BALPA membership has done for them recently. Ask the long suffering senior FO's at GSS what happens when a conflict develops between a BALPA member and their master's at BA. Heck, ask anyone NOT in BA and you'll get the same response. Absolutely fecking useless. The system at Thompson, for example, is so poisonous that there simply IS no dialogue between management and pilots because both sides are terrified of how BALPA are going to "feel about it" on any given day. Preposterous!
In the rare air of Hounslow, though, different lights burn brightly. All the Atlantic Barons need do is pucker their sphincters appealingly, over whatever irks them that hour, to get the ears of BALPA all twitchy and receptive. In the entire, unhappy history of pilot industrial relations, long and ugly though it be, there will be no relationship more perfectly described as mutual masturbation than that which exists between British Airways and BALPA. The rest of us exist merely as fodder and providers of the cash they need to survive. Call me old fashioned, but I'd prefer the Chinese lesbian plate spinners.
it's safety culture is something to be frowned upon. In my opinion it is closed, non transparent and punitive in its nature.
Ah, this old chestnut. When ya can't get 'em with facts, try a little bull****. You're entitled to your opinion, Alibaba, but you'd be wrong. Very wrong. The RYR safety culture is spot on and does exactly what it says on the tin. It's not just lip service, it's for real, and for the very best of motives. If we're not maximum safe, our business is at risk. If the business fails, we've got nothing. Makes sense, no? I think so. You make mention of two memos that have evidently made it into your cause célèbre in tray. In case of the first, despite repeated instructions concerning stabilised approaches, endless on-message presentations and recurrent training ad nauseum, there were still a significant few who descended below our 'gates' not stabilised by our definition. Since the Chief Executive's memo, though,
there hasn't been a single one. NOT ONE. Effective flight safety enhancement, perhaps?
Proof is in the CVR CB memo and the 500ft gate memo. Things can still be done and written to try to tackle the subjects at hand but with a little bit more tact with respect to the professionals that fly these aircraft.
Oh really? Once again, all evidence to the contrary. If professionals don't, for whatever reason, do what we're remunerated for, despite endless "tact with respect", what is an airline to do? Shrug the shoulders and look out the window, at peace in the knowledge that these professionals you speak of will do the right thing, despite a mountain of anonymised data to the contrary? Of course not. The CVR memo is for precisely the same reason. When we get it wrong, we want to learn from it. We can't learn if the tools of learning are denied us.
You'd do well to listen less to the tone of voice, Alibaba, and more the words being uttered, but then your BALPA is all about style over substance, isn't it. Who would have thought that such bull**** as is BALPA's could be piled so high without suffering some terrible structural catastrophe. But wait! It gets worse!
I think it would be right to say because of the punitive type nature that the company management posses against it pilots it can lead to pilots being less open to report safety related incidents in fear of punitive action taken against themselves
Bull**** on stilts. Unworthy of further comment.
In my opinion, to many times have "Tea and Biscuits" been mentioned with pilots being hauled off to DUB to be stripped of rank, position and most of all Dignity and Respect in a kangaroo court with no proper or established lawful processes.
There you go with those 'opinions' again. Now I know you've never worked for us. This, demonstrably, DOES NOT HAPPEN. No one is denied due process. Surely even you wouldn't deny that occasions of repeated intentional non-compliance need to be addressed by sterner medicine than a slap on the wrist? Just how committed to Flight Safety are YOU?
The rest of your post is typical BALPA recruiting boilerplate, but I would say that what we do with our two billion €uro in cash is our business, not yours. Besides, we have 400 new aircraft to buy in order to facilitate future growth and employment of pilots, as well as a longhaul operation to get off the ground. As for returning it to shareholders, RYR stock doesn't pay dividends.
I find it stunning that you use Easyjet and Thompson as your pinups to the value inherent in joining your turgid organisation of British Airways pilot's prostate gland masseurs. In case of the former, you clearly haven't been keeping abreast of developments
here. I've already mentioned the latter. A hopeless, despairing organisation of union infested, commercially failing, upper middle class, ex RAF dingbats where time to command is over 10 years at present. Mmmmmm, yummy.
Ryanair is one of the few great success stories in European, and shortly, world aviation and the one conspicuous aspect of our development, the one that kinda jumps at you right off the page, is the
total absence of pilot unions. Coincidence, you think? We employ 2500 pilots, the vast majority of whom are more than happy with Ryanair T's&C's, and view your scurrilous attempts at making it in through the back door yet again, after being repeatedly told we don't want you, as what happens in a successful environment that lacks ready access to rat poison. How many votes will it take until you vanish back under the rock from which you emerge?
How appropriate you’ve chosen to call yourself Alibaba, old boy. Be warned, though, it’ll take more than a hearty “OPEN SESAME” from you and your forty thieves to prise open OUR
cave of treasure.