You guys moaning about Ryr not hiring Irish people don't know what you're talking about.
On the previous page, someone said the last Irish to join Ryanair started the TR course in August.
Now that's funny because I know almost a dozen Irish who started the course since then.
I know a few Irish who got invited to the interview recently (within the previous 5-6 weeks).
Ireland is a (relatively) small country. There are over 10 times more inhabitants in the UK or France than there is in Ireland. If they want to pick evenly people from all over Europe, it would be fair to assume there would be 10 times more British than Irish. In fact, there are a lot of Irish given the size of the country.
The fact you are not being called is more down to the current recruitment needs and/or the very simple fact that not everyone gets called for the interview.
Ryanair don't care where you're from. Pilots are from almost all the nationalities in the world. Russians, Chinese, Americans, Brazilians, Serbians, Italians, French, British, Spanish, .. and 130 more.
If you speak English, have the right to work in Europe, are under 30, preferably not a female (judging my the very low number of female pilots who joined last year), ATPL exams passed 1st time with maximum 1 retake, first time pass on the CPL and IR, MCC on a jet and not a FNPT2, no or little previous airline experience, then you might (lets say one chance out of 10) get invited for an interview.
If you do not fit into these criteria, just forget it.
Oh and, 9 month wait is nothing. Talk to the guys who waited 5 years before getting any kind of pilot jobs ...
Keep spreading false information and you will surely not get any call anytime soon indeed.
You could say many things about Ryanair, but they are probably the company that cares the least about your nationality. And I think this is really great.
They have many indians within their pilots, arabs, south-americans, russians, Canadians, etc ... and obviously a lot of Europeans.
If you want real facts, here are a few:
Ryanair is not hiring a lot right now and it has been like this for the last 1-2 months or so. They are hiring, but a lot less than last year.
They are no longer expending and don't forecast huge employment waves like they used to have until the end of last year. Right now, about 80 aircraft are grounded. Have a look in STN, on the North-east aprons you can see at least 20 of them.
They don't seem to yet realise many many many seniors FOs are leaving as soon as they are put on the Captain upgrade course. Reason for this? Mainly because a Captain upgrade means relocating, usually in some not very enjoyable bases (Pescara, Kaunas, Trapani, ... 5/3 roster, a lot less flying time, far from family, a few flights making commuting almost impossible).
More recently, there have been rumours of a new roster they would introduce around this summer. It would be a 4/3 flexible pattern for Captains, instead of the current 5/4 or 5/3. Now, while most Captains were fairly happy with the company, a lot of them would leave straight away if this is happening. And a lot are starting to apply elsewhere.
The 5/4 roster is probably about the best there is in any airline flying the 737 in the world now. A huge number of pilots stay with Ryanair for this very reason.
Before you join an airline, you don't care about the roster or any of those things.
When you start to live a normal life as an airline pilot, roster becomes the number 1 most important thing. If you get one of the best rosters of any airline, then this itself makes the airline a very good company to work for. If the roster changes to a bad one, it changes everything.
About 50 to 60% commute between base and home, and the 5/4 makes it possible.
A lot of new bases (opened within the past 1-2 years) are on the new 5/3 roster, which makes it a lot more difficult to commute. You work 5 days, your first day off is spent commuting, you get one day home, then one day commuting back and 5 days working. Pretty much one day of rest every 8 days. A few people call it the 7/1 roster and this is kind of what it really is.
With a 4/3 roster, everyone would get the same off-days every week. A 4/3 flexible would make it impossible to plan anything.
I would say about 2 to 300 pilots (mostly senior FOs) are leaving Ryanair between May and September this year, most of them for Emirates. Some may delay a bit has EK has only avaibility for the A330 at the moment.
But Ryanair is going to need a lot of pilots if they don't want to cancel their flights this summer, add to that the Olympics in London.
So, wait and see before you complain about not being called. This might change in the very near future.
And before you apply, be sure this airline is for you. Some love it, some hate it.
I know a few people who left or are planning to quit with no backup plan, because Ryr is not for them and they'd rather do a complete different job and live a normal life.