The bare bones of the FCO issues are these: our MXP base is currently providing crew for what has effectively been a base at FCO for some time. Because it was not a declared base with infrastructure (crew room to report to, base management etc), the MXP base was deliberately over-crewed to compensate. Therefore, with the announcement last week of FCO becoming a base, they need to sort out the over-crewing at MXP. They way that is being done is to offer FCO bases to MXP staff first and once that has happened the opportunity will be provided to other staff to bid-into FCO. A bit convoluted and very questionable practice but that is the way it is!
Regarding promotions for those on the outside that are interested, we promoted about 30 (can't remember the exact figure) FOs onto permanent part-year (PPY)contracts this year. They basically get a reduced salary to work as captains 25% over the winter and 100% over the summer. It is 75% work overall. A further 10 were offered temporary commands until the winter, with the added bonus of £10k paid at £2k per month over and beyond the normal captain's salary. In addition they go straight in at 100% salary instead of the customary 90% for 6 months. Finally the only pilots we have trained on the Airbus are CTC and crossovers from the Boeing. Included in that CTC group are the ex-ATP (pay-to-fly) folk from last year who actually reached the required standard.
As an aside, I hear through the grapevine that of the total starters on the ATP scheme last year (pay for a type-rating and 150 hours line training), the completion rate was around 50%. That was a bad deal for easyJet and a bad deal for the people involved. It shows how wary you have to be of paying for type-ratings and if CTC/Oxford et al are warning you about aptitude or lack of it then you should listen. There were many reasons for that figure, but the bottom line was that, for reasons not always related to the individuals themselves, the standard of these folk was simply not good enough. These guys/gals have ended up with terrible debt and no job. In some ways it reflects well on easyJet that they did not lower the standard and many of these poor folk simply did not get through. The 'survivors' from the scheme who are now re-employed through CTC are broadly of a good standard. Nonetheless, it is a big warning and is not a situation I would wish to see repeated.