Chatting to folks around the bazaars occasionally brings up the odd nugget of information.
I gather there was meeting in Wakefield today of BMs, "Senior Pilots"(yes I know Senior Pilots have gone, in title that is, but each unit still needs/has that senior aviator type person for that expert aviation knowledge. I also know that many pilots are strongly resisting this effort to get them to do what the old SPs were doing), plus various desk jockeys.
I also gather that it was due to start at 9am meaning that many had to stay overnight in a hotel, exacerbating the current problem of undermanning because of an overtime ban(leading to single crewing) and a general lack of pilots. Not to mention the hotel expenses in this era of cost cutting.
A later start time could have perhaps reduced of prevented this?
With the current reduction from a 25 a/c service to a 15 a/c one, it looks like a 10 ac model, at the moment, looking at the numbers of available ac due to this no overtime, lack of engineering cover and shortage of NPAS employed pilots to cover duties.
