Hi Again
NSF and i have been having a ding dong here because of a few things but the most significant with regards to this thread is, i believe,
A) My use of the term P2F and
B) The (lack of) Safety culture associated with these schemes.
We do, however agree on the fact that we dont like them.
As well as the Kos and Faro incidents, there has been a Tail scrape of an Irish A321 at LHR and the 737 crash at AMS had a low houred pilot at the controls, albeit with a safety pilot on the jump seat.
Does this show a trend? In April 2010, it might not......... but if there is a more serious incident / accident, the great unwashed will be asking why this happened and to answer that with....... there were no clues is just pure negligence.
Companies........Ezy being one of them,
in the past have had stricly P2F people in their cockpits......... the schemes have evolved, they have developed and they are no longer P2F schemes at Ezy (NSF
) but my belief is that they do erode safety and whatever way they have evolved, they are still being advertied at the top of this page in a strict P2F form and i believe that in any guise, they are less safe than having a full time employee on the same T's and C's as his colleagues.
Removing my argument about safety, briefly, the P2F scheme brought with it an insidious change of T's & C's. Was it a trend back then....... probably not. Is it a trend now........ MOST DEFIANTLY and because it was not nipped in the bud back then, it has now grown to the extent that not only Contract Captains, but Contract Trainers also are being recruited by Ezy (NSF i think thats what you mentioned a few posts back).
Sooner or later there will be enough contract people available that those concerned about erosion of T's & C's in any airline, will have NO CHOICE but to accept it because there will be enough contract people available to fill the posts when and if there is a strike. Leave it too long, and you are well and truly F****d.......... It happened in Australia (not as a result of P2F i might add)
As was just shown with the BA CC strike...... running at 50%+ capacity is hardly a massive victory for those that choose to act but leave it too late!