"As for any unrest between mainline and regional, no idea, but Regional and Mainline are not the same companies and so guff about internal transfers is irrelevant really in my eyes."
There we have it in black and white. I spent 3.5 years on the LHR secondment and I would say that generally it was a good experience. I could relate a couple of incidents that left a bad taste. I put this down to some old guard that felt his airline was being demeaned by the crowd north of the border and that somehow his job might be threatened.
Far from it I suspect that the rabble from the far north helped keep the sinking ship afloat long enough to be beached allowing the occupants a safe landing. Hopefully jobs with BA.
Although separate companies, separate AOC's, the important bit, all part of the same Group.
When this happened plans where put in place so that essentially regional would be the starting point for a career in bmi. I actually trained to be part of the combined interview team to facilitate this.
A number of factors, in particular bad management put the kibosh on this, although I think about a dozen, perhaps a few more, managed to make the hop across over the years.
I think that if it had been done it would of been good for everyone. It would of been cheaper and bmi would of got a good product. The pay to fly would of got some good experience (actually having to manipulate thrust levers, work out TOD etc) and back in the day at least the hope of a long term career.
By the way i have some sympathy with the "pay to fly monkeys" this industry is all f*cked up, thats a fact. It would be a nightmare for anyone wanting to be a pilot today, I am not sure I for one would do it starting now.