There is no doubt this is not our proudest hour, and I am embarrassed by what has happened in the last few days. In a nutshell, there have been less vacancies than was initially expected. That happens all the time in airlines, but unfortunately e-mails were sent out making clear offers of employment, when subsequently it transpired there were not the total number of vacancies they had expected. The only thing that can be said is they genuinely believed that they had the jobs to offer when the 'many congratulations' emails were sent out. Clearly there are lessons to be learnt, and they already have been. Taking a leaf from BA's book, when you pass the selection process they tell you that you are in a hold pool for a year or whatever and no formal offer is made. If a vacancy appears in that time you will be offered a start date, but if it does not then all those swimming in the hold pool find the plug is taken out and are sent a 'Dear John, it is with great regret etc...' email. That is unfortunately not what happened here and it is highly regrettable.
What needs to be said, however, and it is little comfort to those involved, is that this is a genuine error and not some scam as some here are suggesting. I believe that nearly a hundred experienced pilots from all backgrounds have been offered jobs, in addition to over a hundred of the usual cadets. That is not as many as was originally intended, but that happens in every airline as any experienced pilot will know. You start with a base number and that goes up or down as the recruitment period goes on, based on the ever-changing vagaries of fleet movement, routes, fuel prices, summer programme changes, training slots, attrition etc. The lesson to be learnt from this is that a company should never, ever send out the 'we are delighted to offer you a job' e-mail until they have a specific course planned and a start date. I have no doubt that it was all well-intended, but it has caused massive personal pain to those on the receiving end of this and seriously damaged easyJet's reputation, when it was all so avoidable. Nonetheless, the real question for most of those involved is what happens next? The recruitment season is over for this year, but the whole process will begin again next year. I have no doubt that those who have been badly let down will be at the top of the list when it all kicks off again. That is scant consolation, but there you have it.