Couldn't put it any better than those two words from TransitCheck.
They have until May to sort things out. That's their annual opportunity to adjust terms, conditions, pay and with it staff moral.
The news about how desperately short of crew we are has apparently now reached management level, after a 3 year or so delay. There's a mad push to now get enough people recruited before May so they don't have to try to keep current staff from quitting. We received what must have been a joke email from the head of recruitment last week saying 'we have roadshows in the following locations...why not recommend us to your friends?' We all had a good laugh at that.
I've never flown with so many colleagues who are either serving their notice period or waiting to resign - and trust me if there isn't a huge improvement in May then they're gone.
The biggest issues Emirates have right now are:
1. They've not in their history had so many people leaving, and this at a time when they've not ever needed to recruit so many
2. Pilots finally have options - American's can leave to go to good deals back home, Europeans can go to a better deal with several low cost carriers and everyone else can head East for bumper pay packages - hey if you're going to be a mercenary why not get the best money?!
It's all about May. They need to give a decent pay rise- around 10% in my opinion, an appropriate profit share - all things considered (profit forecast and cost of fuel) even 18 weeks would seem to be on the low side and most importantly they need to stop taking things away and treat all staff with respect.
Alan Pardew