Akrapovic - that is not really the whole picture, or indeed the any part of the picture about what is happening at easyJet. I am an easyJet Training Captain based in Gatwick and although I am not a manager I have a reasonable picture of what is happening within the company.
The headline news is this:
1. Although not yet stated officially, we have had a great summer and are almost certainly about to announce a profit for the whole year - something that only Ryanair in the UK and only a handful of airlines in the western world will acheive this year.
2. Our share price is on the rise compared to where it has been this last year.
3. UK regional bases are under threat of closure or reduction. East Midlands which only had 3 aircraft at it is the only one to announce a closure - all aircraft will be deployed elsewhere and all pilots and cabin crew will be offered jobs elsewhere.
4. Larger bases like Gatwick and a number of European bases are likely to expand significantly over the next year.
5. Despite the difficult situation at the UK regional bases, the overall picture is one of fleet increase over the coming few years and we are constantly receiving brand new Airbuses from the factory.
6. There will be demand for pilots at easyJet for years to come.
7. Right now there is not a company in the world that I know of that is more secure for pilots on permanent contracts. We have as safe a job as exists right now - I for one am extremely grateful for that situation.
8. We fly a fleet of nearly new aircraft - it is not unommon the find yourself flying a brand new Airbus in its first week out of the factory.
9. Despite the numerous attempts by our managers to ruin things, easyJet is still a great place to work, and most people really enjoy it.
10. If you are fortunate to work at places like Gatwick, the range of destinations is enormous - I have worked here over 5 years and I still have not been to all our destinations.
11. The 5/3/5/4 rostering pattern is a huge benefit and you can plan your life over a year ahead to know when you are off.
12. The people are great - I work every day with pleasant, courteous and professional people who really want to do a great job. That is difficult to quantify financially, but in terms of the enjoyment of your day it is just priceless.
Alas, it is not really good news for those in the holding pool. My own view, and I think this will be verified by anyone in the know at easyJet, is that the holding pool is effectively defunct. The whole way easyJet conducts its recruitment has come under intense scrutiny and the traditional forms of recruitment are basically gone. It is stating the obvious, but for the infinite foreseeable future I cannot envisage any circumstances under which we will recruit Direct Entry Captains (DECs) again. For the next few years, and maybe beyond, all future First Officers will be recruited from cheap low-houred guys/gals who will be recruited through CTC. These will be young folk who have huge burdens of aviation debt who are desperate for hours and will take virtually any deal on offer. They will be employed in the summer months only on temporary contracts. Until that supply dries up, and that may be many years from now, that is likely to be the only way into easyJet I can imagine. Forget the old days of wanting experience on turboprops, or better still jets - those days are long gone. All that counts now is a type-rating and a couple of hundred hours total time. We can basically get our supply of pilots for the summer from this source.
Where do the captains come from you might ask? The answer is that they will all come from within and from 2 basic contracts. One will be permanent but hours limited promotions from within. They will be FOs (we have around 250-300 suitably qualified FOs awaiting promotion right now - cannot give you the exact figure but around those numbers) who get their turn. They will be offered full time for 6 months in the summer and 25% in the winter (contract known as PPY75 - pemanent part year 75%). The others will come from temporary promotions from our own FOs who will get summer commands only.
There are an enormous range of 'economy' measures in place. These vary from the recruitment policy above to the attacking of Training Captain salaries. All Training Dept promotions were cancelled for the winter - anyone waiting a TRI/TRE upgrade was unceremoniously binned off their planned courses a few weeks ago. There is an ongoing discussion about how to handle the 'surplus' of Line Training Captains - almost certainly the end result will be no redundancies but a reduced training contract with reduced money.
Love it or hate it, that is the future as I believe it to be at easyJet. If you are swimming in the Holding Pool, my best advice would be to make alternative plans very quickly. I genuinely believe there is little or no possibility any time in the next few years when you will be offered a permanent job at easyJet. Please do not shoot the messenger - I am not justifying this situation in any way, but merely reporting it as it is. Some of my colleagues may care to contribute with their take on the situation, but I would need some persuading that the view I have given is not correct. Best of luck to one and all.