Flybe are not in the least bit protectionist about jobs for locals.
At the BALPA conference many years back there was a very well known presentation from a 23 yr old Italian girl who had secured employment with Flybe. So the thing about Flybe favouring the English does not really hold.
Flybe would frequently overlook high hour instructors based near Exeter in favour of low hours grads from CABAIR in the past, then wonder why they had crew retention problems as former CABAIR graduates disappeared to Easyjet once the bond was up / or had the required time. Quite the opposite to Loganair who I believe actively recruit Instructors based in Scotland. With CABAIR now gone I wonder who Flybe have as the preferred training provider.
Plenty of Europeans working for any number of UK based operators. I think you will find the language requirement for nearly all French, most German, most Spanish and most Scandinavian Airlines pretty much rules out working in Europe for most of the Brits. That is the big joke about the EASA / JAA licences allowed the Mainland Europeans to work in the UK, but on the whole didn't give the populous of pilots here in Angleterre full access to all of Main land Europe.
I have no objections to Airlines protecting jobs for the locals, but I do object to Europeans throwing accusations of protectionism at UK operators, when this is about the one country in Europe where the Airlines do not have any "protectionist policies in place".
Last edited by portsharbourflyer; 14th Jun 2014 at 17:35.