Hi All,
This has been covered in the Thomson Recruiting thread, but I will repeat it here. The permanent positions have been filled already. The temporary summer only positions are to crew an aircraft out of Leeds for summer 13. This flying was originally to be done by a 3rd party airline, but at fairly short notice it was decided to operate it with a Thomson aircraft. It is only for summer 13 with a view to a more permanent situation should the holiday uptake indicate a viable operation. We are maxed out on 737 conversions this winter with 100+ pilots converting from the Airbus and 757/767 fleets, hence the permanent positions going to current rated NG pilots who will only need an Operators Conversion Course and 4 sectors of line training. It is the availability of line training sectors which is a major factor. The Leeds positions would normally be crewed by a recruitment of cadets under the recently agreed Thomson cadet programme, but due to the training load already being undertaken this couldn't be done this time, hence again the requirement for type rated pilots. There is also another aircrafts work for summer 13 being flown out of Edinburgh for the first time, but this is being flown with an aircraft and pilots from Sunwing a Canadian TUI airline under a reciprocal agreement whereby we send aircraft and crews to Canada for their busy season over our slacker winter and vice versa.