Somehow AL pilots maintained their elevated pay status in the face of realism considering their business model and their returns.
The cost base in LGW and BFS is exactly where Aer Lingus management want it. They have publically admitted it. You are talking out of your you know what. 100 pilots are set to lost their jobs in other Aer Lingus bases. In the bases that your company will be operating out of current Aer Lingus pilots are being rostered to sit at home. Out of these 100 pilots set to lose their jobs you guessed it 100 of them have applied for transfer to both Belfast and Gatwick on the company accepted local terms and conditions in anticipation of the expansion being promised. So Rainboe let me get this straight. As a 'proud' BALPA member you are telling us that you are happy to fly an Aer Lingus aircraft with the company's own colour scheme but now dry leased to your company with the full knowledge that by doing so you are taking someone else's legitimate job in
their own company without the company ever engaging in any consultation with the individual asking them if they would be willing to reduce their cost to the company? You're a 'proud' BALPA member my arse.
Aer Lingus have
NO routes out of the UK that require them to use your company at this present time. The use of your company at this present time is an
additional cost to Aer Lingus, not a saving as they are still required to pay your company for it's services whilst at the same time pay it's own pilots to sit at home. To add further ammunition to this whole plan they now face paying a potential hefty redundancy package to the pilots it wants to let go, even though there is work for them at the company acknowledged and accepted cost base. A question was asked of Aer Lingus management as to how much this would save the company. The answer - "We don't have this information to hand". Aer Lingus have had ample time to apply for this UK AOC ever since this plan was devised in early April in anticipation for future expansion next summer and have failed to do so. Using this mickey mouse type airline/operation is nothing short of an attack on pilot unions and the industry as a whole around Europe. If you can't see that then your level of intellect is surpisingly low. However I suspect that the picture of the queen on a piece of crusted paper is all you're interested in. My surprise is that the Irish Government as 25% shareholders haven't stepped in to put a stop to this situation. They still have three weeks to do so. For them to stand back as a share holder in the company and allow legitimate employees of a company be forced onto the increasing social welfare burden at a time when they are offering to reduce their cost to the level publically acknowledged by the company as being satisfactory is beyond me. My only reasonable explanation as to why they haven't stepped in thus far is simply a case of they haven't been properly informed of the 'true' picture as to what is going on.
Don't get me wrong. I never have nor never will wish any professional pilot to be out of work and I extend this good will to our greatest competitors. However if this goes where I think it will go then the additional losers out of this will be your colleagues and in particular the captains who have been recruited exclusively for this operation. The Dry Leasing of the Aer Lingus aircraft will end in a few months, your company's management will have made a generous amount of money out of it but the reality now will be that Aer Lingus now have it's own UK AOC and will then use it's own pilots to crew the expansion. What position will your one year contract colleagues be left in then? I suspect you don't really care. Your now out of work contract colleagues will end up applying to Aer Lingus, just to keep their 'local' job. They'll be lucky! I can't see there being that many Airbus jobs in the UK for them for the forseeable future with your company. Bear in mind that Aer Lingus management agreed and signed in clear black and white only a few months ago an agreed global seniority list with all it's pilots after an exhaustive process stating that no DEC captains would be recruited in any current or future base until all internal applications have been exhausted. Where will your colleagues stand then? To put it in perspective approx 70% of the current pilot body in Aer Lingus are eligible for command positions right now such is the experience level in the company. This will only increase as the months progress. I think it paints a bit of realism on the future command positions on offer.