Some points to consider....
Some of the Thomson pilots here have posted very optimistic descriptions of the conditions here but if you are applying based on salary and time to command expectations the following may be of use to you.
The current recruitment at Thomson has come about because of what the management call a 'modernisation program'. The introduction of this is because they have assessed their operating cost to be a certain amount more than what they deem to be our main competitor - an orange coloured operation.
In order to reduce their costs we were asked to accept a change to our industrial agreement. Should we not have accepted this it was made clear that the tour operator would reduce its use of the in-house airline meaning that a fleet reduction and further redundancies would become necessary. Part of this agreement was creating the terms for recruiting pilots and part was change to our operating conditions. Posters above have indicated the amount it may be possible to earn through overtime payments based on the current conditions. Please do not expect to be able to do this. The new agreement will change our working practices so that the amount of overtime achievable will most likely be negligible (ie standby duties introduced where before we were offered pay for working on our days off, the number of days off in peak months is being reduced and the max monthly rostered hours increased).
Posts above also indicate that the time to command could be 10 years. I have been here for over 7 years and estimating from the company’s own internally published numbers of pilots reaching retirement age each year for the next few years it looks like my earliest chance of command is 12 years away. That is if the airline stays the same size. Things could go much better if we expand but as I said above the management has spent much of this year threatening us with further reduction so this time could more likely increase. The threat is all the more plausible as we have been told that a lot of our aircraft leases become due for renewal in 2015 which will mean there is the opportunity to shrink without significant cost to the business.
While I don’t want to be negative I would like anyone thinking of leaving another stable job to consider these things when making the decision. The airline is made up of a lot of great people but there is also a lot of low morale at the moment, especially among the FOs. For those applying good luck and should you be successful I hope you thoroughly enjoy working here.