Hi Doug et al. I have been unavoidably detained elsewhere but am always up for a bit of discussion! I must disagree with your increasingly jaded perspective of things. These are not easy time for any airline right now and easyJet is no exception. Without a doubt there are some extremely unsrupulous individuals who make up our management team who would leave us in the street with nothing. Nonetheless, there is an increasingly vibrant union fighting them head on and we are making some progress. Your characterisation of the private forum is not correct - the only manager who has access is P J Smallwood and he appears as himself when he contributes (he has not done so for months to my knowledge and may have had the hard word from above to no longer participate).
I have worked at easyJet for more than 5 years now and still thoroughly enjoy my working day. The new 75/25 contract is extremely attractive and I intend to take full advantage of it in order to spend more time with Mrs Fletcher once the offspring have departed. The contract captain battle appears to have been won although it looks like temporary commands are coming in. What happens at the end of the summer season is anyone's guess as no one yet knows the take-up of the 75/25 option. As one who has worked for 2 turboprop and 3 jet airlines (plus Her Majesty before that), easyJet is the best place I have worked. There is barely an airline in the world that offers the range of destinations that Gatwick does for pilots. We fly virtually brand new aircraft and I personally love the Airbus. There are still new aircraft arriving every month and right now this is about as safe an airline to be at as any in terms of job security.
Are there problems? Absolutely! Is everything perfect? Absolutely not! Nonetheless, despite a voracious Flt Ops Director who wishes to leave us in the street with nothing, the day-to-day life of an easyJet pilot is far from bad. There are better paid airlines, but there are many worse paid. I am up for the fight with management if the need arises, but I am not up for making problems that do not yet exist. My glass is half-full and there is much work to be done. I feel very sorry for those who have not been offered jobs with us who might have previously been dead-cert candidates. The summer contracts are likely to be with us from now on, but there will still be opportunities for permanent employment once the summer/winter establishment has been sorted out. I do not pretend it is perfect but it is far from disastrous. Anyone who has been in this industry for any time knows this is a game of Musical Chairs, and the name of the game is to be on the strongest chairs when the music stops. Right now, this is still one of the best chairs to be sat on, as the music has well and truly stopped!