Flyboy - I agree with some of what you say but there are some bits I think you may see BA brush past quite easily..
Originally Posted by
Flyboy102
It would be costly to set up and maintain, reduce flexibility with rostering and scheduling, and would have issues with regards to experience on board - I'm not sure the company will want the First cabin on a 744 to be crewed entirely with trainees when these customers are the main source of BA's income. Granted there are some ex-temps in the hold pool who could bring a bit of experience
All these problems (or not) have been experienced already at the testing ground that was LGW Single Fleet. 1400 crew, most of whom had never had any experience with the BA long haul product let alone a BA 777, save for a handful of 6 month temps and some Cabin Managers who had an extended conversion course managed fine. I imagine NF would start off on smaller crew numbers to establish the fleet and within no too long, Robert is your mothers brother, like Gatters you have an established, self sustaining fleet. As for flexibility, have you seen a Gatwick Roster? - when they (BA) want to they can pack in the hours very easily - more so than with an MBTR system.
Also, who will be the "in charge" crew member? Are they hoping that experienced crew from the existing fleets will transfer to NF to get a quick promotion?
Many easy answers to this; some Gatwick Crew would be happy to try, then there is the possibility of seconded old fleet crew or direct entry SCCM's
What I really believe they want is new contracts for new crew who will fly within the existing LHR fleets on different terms & conditions.
Unfortunately Bill Francis' email said the company specifically didn't want this due to the complexity involved.
If the hourly rate is anything like at LGW, a three day BOM trip would generate something in the region of £100 in allowances for the new contract crew. I'm not entirely sure what current LHR WW crew get for a BOM trip but it can't be much more than that.
Quite right an hourly rate 3 day trip is worth about £150 at Gatwick (including the ONA) which is probably more than it's worth at LHR WW at the moment - however it balances out as the long trips are considerably cheaper to crew at LGW (less crew, less variable payments).
So where are the savings from future crew going to come from? Rostering them on the long range trips so over time the company will be spending less and less on things like Box payments, expensive meal allowances in NRT etc. Ok the 900 hour rule may come into it if all the new contract crew are doing is long range trips, but then Qantas & Air NZ still manage to keep their LHR based crew within 900 hours despite them only operating long range flights.
Absolutely right - long range is where these crew are likely to go - "new fleet" probably also on new aircraft like the A380 which is designed for these low frequency long haul routes or the ULR flights that we should see the 787 doing (if the rivets ever get fixed!) This is why BASSA need to seriously change their approach to negotiating how you are paid - so that reliance on variables is no longer necessary.
I am sorry to pick on your post, it's nothing personal, but I think it is important to realise these things so that, hopefully, you can push for some protection from what is coming.
As ever I wish you all the best.