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Old 19th Sep 2012, 19:11
  #288 (permalink)  
Alexander de Meerkat
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: United Kingdom
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There is no doubt that supply and demand is a massive factor in what is happening here. The simple reality is that there is an infinite supply of talented young people who are desperate to be airline pilots. They can persuade their parents, who like any good parents want a bright future for their kids, to mortgage their houses and take £100k+ loans for their offspring to fulfil their ambitions. For every cadet that is accepted into the CTC/Parc schemes, there are 10 who are not and who would sell their grandmothers to be there. Given that scenario, why would any airline want to pay them £50k a year, when they will actually pay for the privilege of flying for them? The very people who are complaining about the terms and conditions are the same people who signed up to them in order to get ahead of more experienced non-rated pilots who were frankly infinitely better qualified in every respect to have those jobs. We therefore have the insane and very unpleasant sight of numerous well-qualified pilots unable to work for companies like easyJet. Simultaneously, countless low-houred pilots, who can hardly land the aircraft, get Airbus jobs in order to save their employers money.

Enter BALPA - that much-derided and little-praised organisation who are the only restraining force against voracious management manipulation and the worst excesses of human nature. They have to somehow fight for a deal that no company wants to give, or indeed has any real need to give. And yet countless people (the very same ones who bought their way into the industry) hate and deride BALPA for not getting them permanent contracts. Nonetheless, I do see the excesses of flexicrew misuse as being so vile and unpleasant that they must be fought. I also see that if we do not do so, then everyone will be in the same boat very shortly. I despise the avarice of employers who have taken such advantage of these ill-advised young people. So, despite a significant element of being self-induced, the iniquities of the flexicrew system and the grotesque inequalities it has created simply have to be fought for the greater good. BALPA are indeed about to engage with easyJet on this issue, and will probably come up with some deal that is not as good as the current offering, but one that provides long term security and a permanent contract for all pilot who have worked here more than 6 months. Frankly, given that the economic laws of supply and demand are so against them, any deal is a good one in the current climate. Despite that, I would fight tooth and nail to maintain the present Senior First Officer and Captain contracts - what I would be flexible on is the route to get there as long as a clear path career path is established from Second Officer to Training Captain, but without the ravines in the process that currently exist.

Finally, much is made of the loss of terms and conditions in the airline industry. That is indeed so, but the reality is that many people who once would never have darkened the door of a jet cockpit are now doing so at a very early stage in their careers. Supply will always outstrip demand at the bottom end and that unfortunately means constant pressure on terms and conditions. No one likes that, but these are the rules that pervade in the same way that the laws of gravity apply to us all. If the day comes that we cannot get enough First Officers to join us, and I do not envisage that day in my lifetime or beyond, then we will have to pay a lot more money and offer a lot more to keep them. Given that such a situation does not currently exist and is never likely to, this is the way it is - harsh, but a dose of reality nonetheless.
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