Not a bad effort at explaining things overall. You will understand, though, that as we ALREADY operate aircraft with in excess of 100 seats, the logic (other than that of the power of the majority vote) is a little strained.
Having experienced your BA management now for a year or so, I completely understand where you are coming from, and I completely support your aspirations to resist any degradation to mainline Ts and Cs. It is a well known and indisputable point that BA have slipped a long way from the top of the remuneration ladder. It has also become clear to us that your management are not to be trusted in any area at all, and frequently change their minds having already agreed things. Thus, no argument again.
Where does that leave us? Hopefully just mopping up the detail. So much of what you say makes absolute sense. But if you want to be both fair, and expect to work harmoniously with us, then you have to accept that our development into more and more of the thinner routes -
(how thin is profitable is a beancounter thing, the numbers change on a daily and person to person basis)
- is probably not going to change. What happens when the RJ/146 are retired, and a replacement is sought? On my understanding, if it has more seats than an RJ, then its BA, if less, then BACX. Problem is, of course, that by then there will not be many regional BA pilots left, and for sure the Company is not going to want to pay the hotac bills.
This has got to be resolvable, all it really takes is BACC and BACX CC agreeing, and BEING straight with each other. It doesn't help when we find that BACC are up to BA management tricks, and not telling us all the details. Yes yes, I know, whose interests are you acting in primarily blah blah blah. However, remember we are now chained together with BA financial shackles. If one of us stumbles, he will bring the other to his knees.............
If one of us is deliberately tripped up - well you don't have to be a rocket scientist do you?
I suggest a Scope limit of 120 seats, which should keep us all happy. I also suggest BA mainline recruitment out of BACX, not as a right, but as a primary interview pool for those who want it, with standard interview terms applying. I also suggest a way into BACX at age 55, for those from mainline who want it, clearly as DE Captains, again subject to interview. This should allow career aspirations or not to be fully explored without any writing of blank cheques - but don't forget we're already saving BA line guys from the dole queue flying with us right now! I suggest joint pressure on our Pension future, or we will be picked off at leisure.
I suggest, in fact, that the synergies of the two pilot groups are HUGE - we help no-one but the BA management dorks by all this squabbling.
