Being one of those Thomson Airways pilots who spent time some 6 months at Jetairfly. Here is my take on the airline.
Good Points-
Very friendly pilots and cabin crew.
Food was the best I have had on a plane.
Very relaxed atmosphere at work and while staying at the local accommodation.
Good career structure for new pilots, working in ops and flying.
Use of technology for pilots.
Other points-
At the time they did not "position" crew to outstations but called it Travelling time. Result, take away up to 3 hours duty on a long 3 sector day and you find yourself off duty and resting in a taxi back to Brussels with less than minimum rest for next flight. Part A and Rostering manual was very clear positioning should be rostered. But through fear of loosing their job (words from trainers and other pilots) and because of no union representation they could not change the system. Although some lost out when they did change the system after our complaints to a two base "egg concept" the vast majority gained.
Telling pilot that after 3 hours on duty trying to get tech aircraft back to base, was told they were off duty when they arrived in TFS so could come back to base hours earlier than was legally allowed.
Very competent low hour second officers constantly hand flying instrument approaches and increasing PM workload and trained in the use of gear down and flap one at 240kts so that they could "get a visual approach" No planning of descent for a probable visual approach. Resulted in many unstable approaches. Up to 5% of all approaches were unstable and landing without going around in a two month period. I hand fly myself and conduct visual approaches when appropriate but would only use gear down at such speeds if my options were limited and not as an SOP.
Management who emailed to all pilots that "contractors and Thomson pilots should not talk to their fellow pilots about other airlines", through fear that the pilot workforce might unite I assume.
Use of blank days (anytime not on day off, rest or duty) and a whole week on blank used for standby cover from about 7am to 10pm. So you could have been up all day then the company call you for a long night flight. Part A manual contradicted company "advice" regarding blank days.
One of our F/O's told he had passed initial sim ride then after 1-2 months wait for new aircraft to arrive was told he had in fact failed sim!
Working for a company which sticks to the Part A, has good terms and conditions and has union representation I am in a privileged position. I just hope that Jetairfly has matured from being a small charter carrier making its way in the competitive airline world to being a company that respects its workforce and abides by its agreed FTL's.
Last edited by orions123; 13th Feb 2013 at 10:04.