For the guys without NG experience, don't lose hope entirely!
From the BALPA perspective we negotiated the Flight Ops Modernisation Programme to try and remove the bias that favoured the following.
Selection by ability to pay: There are any number of guys out there with the right stuff to train up but only some can afford the likes of CTC.
Selection by relevant hours experience: Ditto, only some have the right Type Rating.
The company states they want the best pilots but in recruiting from the above two pools they implicitly exclude lots of other great potential. If the best candidates come from the pools above then great but we haven't even explored the other areas, self improved, other type operators etc. We set out to try and change that.
We have had some small success and it is still high on the agenda. There is a sizeable internal turnover of refleeting which soaks up training capacity and Thomson is a business so it is not unnatural that any additional training load is looked at in terms of trying to reduce it. As the internal load reduces I would hope, and certainly we (BALPA) are actively pursuing looking at tapping into experienced but non Type Rated pilots.
We thought we might get there this year but it was not to be although the inclusion of Classic hours is a step forward. I'd like to see that expanded to include non 737 hours generally. The start up of our internal Cadet Programme is a leap forward and should see the demise of future Type Rated Fixed Term "Contractor" type arrangements.
Meanwhile, the 8 contract guys from last year are now on Permanent TOM contracts, albeit on a PPY50 basis and the ?27 PPY50 guys we accumulated over the last couple of years have now all been offered Permanent Full Time contracts.
Good luck to all.
Last edited by yeoman; 25th Sep 2013 at 10:59.