Saw the BACX 2003 bid list today. There is a huge amount of training planned this year with the incorporation of the RJ100 into the company. The BACX training system, although pretty good, will be stretched to the limit with courses for a large percentage of the current crews. With the Turbo Props doomed the surplus of pilots is only going to increase (In the short term anyway).
My understanding is that the Eastern deal has gone pear shaped due to lack of BACX crews willing to move to Eastern. I would imagine Eastern can't afford the training bill for any more aircraft now they are going to have to foot it. This means Eastern will only be taking 6 aircraft in the short term. The other six are going into storage. Shame because the 41 is generally a good machine and a great introduction to airline flying and I'm sure the other six would have provided at least a few new seats for some of the wannabes out there.
To end on a more positive note we are told things change rapidly and tommorrow BACX might find itself short of crews again (like last summer !). The other glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for those in the pool is that the RJ100 fleet is going to have about 60 seconded BAR pilots who BA are trying to tempt back to mainline. As they trickle back - which I'm sure they will with the lure of 777 seats becoming available - there will be openings again in BACX.
Hang in there guys and girls it will be worth the wait. The job that is not the company !