Hello everyone,
Gosh it's a long time since I posted on here but I thought it might be a good time to do before heading up to Leeds tomorrow for Pilot Careers Live.
So, always interesting to hear the various rumours and ideas on PPRuNe, and to see that phrase 'the horse's mouth'. One of my colleagues has been quoted on here, pretty much verbatim, so I thought I could add some context to what's been said.
We've just managed, in the last month or so, to draw some breath from what has been the most intense period of pilot recruitment in BA's history. Over the period 2015-16 BA will take on over 700 new pilots - a record as far as we know in our history. We've been totally immersed in making that happen, and that's involved a huge number of interviews, simulator checks, tests, roadshows and visits to meet pilots based in the Middle East and Hong Kong. We're really pleased to now be ahead of the curve, for want of a better phrase, and to have fully filled all our vacancies up until the end of October. We have more offers going out for November and December and we have FPP graduates and DEP hold poolers to cover all those vacancies.
So, we now have the time to devote energy to FPP (although 2017 will be upon us before we know it so we're keeping a very close eye on our DEP numbers as well!) but our workload means we won't be launching FPP in the near future. We do want to re-open, but after 5 years of the scheme we're looking carefully at a number of things before re-launching. As such, I'd use the aviation phrase 'delay undetermined'. Don't panic if you're way in August - the opening there was only a rumour. I cannot commit to quite when we'll have news, but if you can make it to Leeds I will be there with three of my colleagues - two of whom are FPP graduates who now fly the line with us on the A320 fleet. We'd all love to meet you and to talk about your aspirations to fly, and to offer whatever advice we can. Do stop by if you can. Leeds will be my last PCL show, as it's time for my recruitment wings to take a break! After 1000 pilots recruited I'm handing over to a new manager at the end of this month, so she'll be looking after things from thereon in.
There has never been a recruitment environment like this for as long as I can remember, so it's very interesting times. I hope that it's bearing fruit for people finding first flying jobs, and for those thinking about entering cadet/mentored programmes with other airlines also.