Seasexsun,
You are right about the flydubai requirements and you may actually be surprised that there are quite a few Aer Arann people with that level of Jet experience. Many have flown for Aer Arann as a lifestyle choice in order to be based in Ireland etc.
To be my knowledge I know of about 10 people that are leaving and there are a few more set to leave just awaiting either start dates or final screening for various places.
I think this is going to be just the tip of the iceberg. Anyone with even a sniff of a job elsewhere will leave and why shouldn't they?
Most crews are treated with complete indifference and disrespect from management.
There is no pay structure at all in place. It is truely ridiculous where a year 4 Captain will take home around 600 euros more per month than a fresh out of line training frozen ATPL 250 hour guy / girl. There is no incremental pay structure at all. Multiple pay freezes and pay cuts with management constantly running from one crises to the next in order to justify sub par crewing levels and awful pay and ridiculous rostering practices.
The examiner process was a complete joke, they received only a small percentage of the money they needed and in doing so now have to run unprofitable flights to Southend from Galway to Waterford instead of Luton. They often run these long 2 hour flights on ancient ATR42s with tacky cabin interiors, hardly any catering onboard at times and various items such as synchrophasers inop which makes for a very long and noisy flight to the East Coast of Britain.
I think this recent exodus is just the beginning and with the market for jobs slowly beginning to pick up, many will vote with their feet. It is a shame really because Aer Arann used to be a great place to work a few years back. There are some great pilots in Aer Arann but sadly they will move on as soon as they can.