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Old 21st June 2003 | 21:56
  #27 (permalink)  
Norman Stanley Fletcher
 
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,094
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From: 'An Airfield Somewhere in England'
Can I throw the name of GB Airways into the ring? They are pretty faultless in most respects. They have never made a pilot redundant, they pay quite well and there is excellent roster stability. The training is excellent with no 'chopping' mentality. They deliberately recruit from the widest range of backgrounds (ie cadets, jet guys from other outfits, turboprop FOs and skippers, civil and military helicopters, fast jet and multi engine military). The senior management are all civvies through and through so there is no 'military mafia' like many other airlines. (I am ex-military myself by the way so please do not take offence all you ex-QFIs, QWIs etc).

There is virtually no flying through the night and there are a maximum of about 2 night stops per month. They operate as BA under a franchise arrangement and follow BA SOPs but fly to lots of nice places in the Med and thereabouts. Aircraft are nearly all brand new A320/321 types (still a couple of 737s left but they go soon). Virtually everone you fly with is a good bloke/girl and they are very professional the way they run the operation.

There is one negative feature, however, and that is the promotion prospects. They had a massive expansion plan to go up to 19 Airbuses and that has all but died or reasons that are not entirely clear. Their are owned by a Gibraltarian family, and have been for several generations. The family are traditionally very cautious and any hint of risk makes them stop dead in their tracks. It is a hard philosophy to argue with because they have consistently done well when others have not. They are stuck at 13 aircraft for the foreseeable future, and that means that many of the FOs who thought they would get quick commands will wait many years if they hang around. There will be 2 command courses in the next 18 months which is not much for a company of about 155 pilots.

Other than that they are excellent employers and very hard to fault.
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