Air Industria - Pilots' deadline

[tHUDddd]

This new start-up in Italy has been stringing pilots along since April, offering them courses and start dates and not delivering.

They want ATR pilots but claim to be having problems with Alitalia (who are providing the aircraft and courses) demanding a higher course fee, and delaying aircraft delivery and consequently the start dates have been put back time and again.

I know of half a dozen pilots who have been waiting at home, being strung along and (one is tempted to conclude) possibly being lied to.

They have told recruitment consultants that the pilots will be put on a 50% retainer, to be back-dated, and to be paid with the first month's salary, but are not prepared to pay the retainer up front. Nor are they prepared to confirm this in writing.

If everything they have said is true, then they are guilty of gross mis-management since they could quite legitimately dump Alitalia, get their aircraft and training elsewhere and could have been operational by now. It has been suggested that ex-Alitalia pilots within ENAC (the Italian CAA) are putting spokes in the wheel.

Several pilots have left other jobs to work for this shower and, in the interim, have no income.

They are being told that they now have until Thursday 1000Z to issue a start date or several pilots will withdraw.

There are quite a few ex-Gill ATR pilots in the list. I know that several former KLM Excel guys are on their books. Several Italian pilots have done the groundschool but are still waiting for the simulator. I believe they are not being paid at the moment. I also hope that they join with us in this deadline.