Source: Royal Bank of Scotland
The news broke on Friday, but was quite widely reported over the weekend was the news that EasyJet's pilots have agreed a new pay and scheduling pact following a recommendation from cockpit union British Airline Pilots Association. The deal comprises a 4% salary increase and a 5% rise in sector pay, but the union flags that crucially the agreement also goes some way to resolving some of EasyJet pilots' long-term concerns about rostering and scheduling. The union credits chief executive Carolyn McCall will a "brave" decision to take on the operational difficulties and discuss a "gamechanging" partnership. The two sides will work under an independent chairman to resolve any outstanding problems. The ballot resulted in 85% voting in favour of the deal, on a turnout of 76%.
Obviously the 4-5% pay deal is not cheap but will, we imagine, have been factored into company guidance. The good cop bad cop partnership of CEO McCall and ops Director Warwick Brady looks to have worked well.
Plainly the market will be very focused on revenue development through the summer and on whether bad cop Warwick and CFO Chris Kennedy can manage crew costs going forward after this not inexpensive settlement. But this episode looks to earned the CEO some kudos and should have
bought the company a good dose of goodwill from the cockpit crew that should help secure the operation through whatever ATC strikes, storms, volcanoes, bean sprout pandemics or other challenges the world throws at the business this summer.