Flexicrew concerns

[AirResearcher]

I've been forwarded this recent post from a BALPA forum by a pilot colleague who shares my concerns about the short and long term consequences of Flexicrew contracts. I thought I would share it here as it doesnt just affect BALPA members.

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Flexipilots


Just why the hell should I as a Captain in one of the UK’s major airlines care one way or the other if the low cost airlines in the UK choose to crew their aircraft with so called Flexipilots?

This action on the part of these airlines will almost certainly have no effect on the remaining 15 years I have left to fly before I can retire on whatever pension provision I have remaining.

I can feel reasonably confident that the changes that are taking place in the UK aviation industry will be slow enough that I will not run across these pilots. And, if I do; they will have struggled their way through the 2500 hours that is required to join most major airlines and no doubt they will then be glad enough to have taken that step into a “major” that the distant time in their career when they were a so called “Flexipilot” will have long since have been forgotten.

So, in simple terms, I have no need to be interested. I, like virtually all my work colleagues, have no reason to be interested, let alone care.

BALPA’s forum echoes this sentiment “WE DON”T CARE” - indeed there is no sentiment.

Yes, we about and fight for safe flight time limitations, We will fight for pension provisions, We will fight for improved crew food, We will even fight for hotel standards and so on. All of which are worthy causes, but are we overlooking the Elephant sitting in the corner?

As a union and indeed as members of a union we have been willfully negligent in allowing this abuse of our colleagues to occur. We have been aware it has been happening, but it has not affected us. Be under no illusion , it WILL affect each and every one of us if we do not act.

OUR profession is being undermined and eroded from within.
Not by those poor individuals that have found themselves in the position of being prostituted to the low cost carriers; but by the flying schools that are offering and indeed selling the dream of a career in the profession that so many of us have been able to live so comfortably from.
It is NOT the actions of these pilots that will ultimately cause the terms and conditions of every pilot in the UK to be eroded.
It IS however the market that has identified the opening to have a pilot’s seat initially filled by an individual who has been judged on the ability to “buy” that seat, this being the overriding factor in getting that post.
This has moved on to the situation we are now witnessing. That of selection being made on the willingness to allow oneself to take on vast debts to an airline: To indenture oneself to that organisation. Indeed while BALPA and the rest of the European airline unions are fighting a virtuous fight against changes in flight time limitations, we have allowed; by doing nothing, the airlines and flying schools to create a group of pilots that will need to fly 1200 hours per year just be able to service the debts that they have accrued to be able to call themselves Professional Pilots.

This situation has to be stopped, I am fully behind the issues raised in BALPA’s last issue of the Log.
Has it raised an eyebrow? I would guess not; simply for us, the majority of Professional pilots, it is inconsequential, it is simply not my problem.......IT HAS TO BECOME OUR PROBLEM

How long is it before as well as having contracted Flexipilots in the Right hand seat, that we have them in the left hand seat. What will that do for the command prospects of those in these airlines? Oh maybe the Union will then interject? But now our membership density has been diluted by Pilots to whom even if Union membership was an option or benefit will not. by virtue of their contracts, be able to act in a cohesive way.

So airlines now have the capability to park up not only aircraft in low seasons, but also crews. I ask how many of us could manage such a short notice removal of pay, without even considering the flight safety issues around recency and low morale?

So how do we stop this issue becoming endemic?

I fear the time to alter the pattern of behaviour among the airlines has long since passed, so it would seem to come down to a simple supply situation.

We have to ensure that every candidate that is considering entering into one of these agreements is fully aware of just what they are letting themselves into.
The flying schools providing these courses need to be held fully responsible for the dream they are selling. The image is of a shiny jet and the “promise” of command at 1500 hours. Does match up to the reality of living below the bread line in say Milan or Munich, taking all the flying that is available just to service the loans taken to secure the position?

Of course the initial training and employment will be based in the UK, but where does the next contract (if there is one) take you? Certainly away from the UK so that the next batch of trainees can be trained from a convenient UK base, so continuing the cycle. So you move at your own expense, with little if no security. (Oh and you can buy your own uniform, that will of course have to be returned at a later date.)

So maybe you are beginning to care a little, I would probably guess not?

I will pose the question that I guess I personally will not have to answer. As a line captain in a major airline I am not expected to be a Training Captain, indeed I can take my rest in the Bunk fully relaxed in the knowledge that those that I leave in the flight deck are fully capable of dealing with any situation that may be thrown at them.

I have no idea if this is the case that those that are flying with so called “Flexipilots” are faced with. How have these “Flexiplots” ever been given the chance to gain experience when all they have been faced with is as much expediency as is possible.

I have flown contracts, I have been laid off (redundancy) some 4 times, I know the stress that is involved in this, many of us do. Yet we are happy to let these organisations put pilots on our aircraft that are living with these threats on a daily basis, with the added factor of a crippling debt thrown in for good measure. Indeed am I alone in wondering why the authorities on the other side of the pond are looking to ask pilots for a minimum of 1500hours total time before being allowed at the controls of a public transport aircraft? While the issue of hours may seem to be punitive and to many elitist, I would wonder on the implications of a pilot flying with the concerns of servicing the debts incurred to join me on the flight deck.

So why do I care?

I have had a long, reasonably successful and prosperous career in aviation, and for my own soul I want to be able leave the legacy of my pride in aviation in the UK to those that chose to follow behind me. I was a young pilot that had the dream of a shiny jet (Granted a Viscount!) I had the dream of a command. And indeed in most ways I am living the dream, it has taken many years, but when I started my journey I was least told the truth. It has been hard, there have been innumerable hurdles. But I have MY Licence that I have gained myself and the airlines I have worked for have PAID me a good wage to exercise the privileges of MY licence. On that basis and that basis alone I would ask that all of you look to yourselves and ask what can be done to stop this flagrant degradation of our profession. Very simply if the airlines want pilots, they pay for Pilots.

We have to act to stop this supply of “Flexipilots” to the airlines, not to stop those that want to set out in a career in aviation, but to ensure our industry is one that retains the highest professional and flight safety standards in the world of aviation. And in doing so provides those that wish to pursue this career the same standard of employment that we have all enjoyed.
In the UK we enjoy a reputation for excellence in this piloting, it is now at risk and this cancer has to be removed from our industry by all available means.

To coin and alter the well used cliché all that it will take for this proliferation of contract crews to continue and to expand into every corner and seat of our profession is to do nothing"