Just as a matter of interest, what happens to all of the surplus crew in winter when there are less planes flying?

A lot of crews are on short term contracts as are ground crew and handling agents etc so will only work May to October

Ian

...what he said :)

I wouldn't be surprised if Jet2 kept some of the crew back ready to operate the call centre for the January/February booking rush, then when that dies down, redeploy them on the planes when the capacity ramps up for Mar/Apr and May/June

At EDI most of the a/c are used on winter Saturdays. I assumed that many of the staff are on annualised hours, ie their contract doesn't specify hours/wk or /month, but /year.

@JFP

Thats a fair point, but from a recruitment persective it's not a bad idea. The turnover of cabin crew from summer to summer must be past 1,000 by now, although i would imagine a lot would be on callbacks for the following season.
Think of the recruitment cost attached to bringing in all these people every year. you have new uniforms to pay for, extra training as well (i've heard they take their customer service training very seriously, hence all the awards they keep winning)
On top of this, they also have to bring in loads of temps for Dec-Mar to cover the call centres. Instead of temps, who don't really know the business, why not use some of your own cabin crew, who know the destinations (to a degree) and can fulfil these roles when they're not needed in the air.

As a company who seem to value their staff a lot, it would probably look really good on their part, keeping costs down, and giving more people year round employment (except Nov, where we'd let them take the bulk of their leave ;) )
And as i said, it would apply to SOME, not ALL, so those who do want the extra time off can still do that. I'm not a dictator....yet...

PS

From a former recruiter:

1. Are the crew in the same place as the call centres?
2. Do they want to do the job?
3. Are the skill sets the same? (no!)
4. Are the employment terms the same?
5. What ramifications are there for employment models elsewhere in the group?
6. Does temporary redeployment add to costs (in things like increased redundancy cost liability)?
7. To what extent are the call centres counter-seasonal to the airline?

Jeez guys, didn't think we'd be THIS far down the path about it. It was a nice, potentially hypothetical scenario
But for everyones amusement, let me try and answer that

1. Are the crew in the same place as the call centres? They have call centres near/in LBA and MAN, the two biggest bases. They even have some homeworkers too (YES)
2. Do they want to do the job? Assuming we're only talking about the few, not the many (YES)
3. Are the skill sets the same? Both would have good communication skills, product/company knowledge and the company ethos, which i hear is pretty good. (NOT EXACTLY, BUT NOT A MILLION MILES OFF)
4. Are the employment terms the same? Inherently not, but...

• most are employed on fixed term basis, so this could possibly be stretched out (i'm no HR person so correct me if i'm wrong)
• difference in pay structure, call centre work is a steady wage + commission, as opposed to cabin crew who are paid only in the air + a flat rate + commission, might be a way round that?
• Company benefits...both still employees of the business, so a tick here

5. What ramifications are there for employment models elsewhere in the group? I wouldn't think many crew would go to any other department on a seasonal basis, so no knock on effects
6. Does temporary redeployment add to costs (in things like increased redundancy cost liability)?. Yes, but this would be outweighed by the reduction in repeat training/ uniform issue
7. To what extent are the call centres counter-seasonal to the airline? As a leisure airline, peak booking period is from Jan-Mar, peak flying period (when the cabin crew are needed most is Apr/May-Sep/Oct. No overlap, hence the counter-seasonal effect being the most benefit

As i said guys, it's just a theory (or a very small practice), no need to dig any deeper into this

LS Smartlynx 321 @ BHX
 

LV-LCY Lateness?
 

Can only agree. From what i can see on FR, flights the Smartlynx renter doesnt seem able to match the normal Jet2 departure accuracy, some flights being way over an hour late, something not often seen with the core Fleet. As a regular user of LS1229/1230 I'm gutted to see the fine record this year (and I've already done two trips) destroyed by it . Last Sundays was1hr20 late. Ive got 2 more this year and it looks like im saddled with it. So far the Wednesday LS1230 return hasn't been abandoned to it, so coming home mght actually be OK.
is there a secret reason why this aircraft or crewing etc etc cant get off the ramps like all the other Jet2 departures.
If its bad flight deck, does Jet2 have any kind of recourse for their lousy punctuality?

The aircrafts first wave rotation in a morning seems to be operating to destinations plagued with slot restrictions already this summer. I know there's been a lot of weather lingering over Europe and the South of the UK in particular this past week or so, but as you say the slot restrictions we've been hit with this season seem to be the worse i've known for a long time !

A321
 

It doesn't make great reading but afternoon seems more problematic and as explained previously plenty of tasty weather over Europe the last week or so and you would need to compare against the other Jet2, TUI, Thomas Cook and FR to see how it rates. At least it operates which is more than can be said for FR.

The schedule for the last week is as follows

Monday 28/5 Morning IBZ +1.12 Afternoon RHO +1.17
Tuesday 29/5 Morning PMI +1.18 Afternoon ACE +1.33
Wednesday 30/5 Morning LCA +0.17 (one flight)
Thursday 31/5 Morning PMI +29 Afternoon RHO +2.32
Friday 01/06 Morning MAH +.34 Afternoon IBZ +2.37
Saturday 02/06 Morning Malaga +1.13 Afternoon LPA +1.14
Sunday 03/06 Morning Malaga +1.44 Afternoon FUE +1.18
Monday 04/06 Morning Ibiza +.37 Afternoon RHO +.44

Would it be fair to say just the Wednesday LCA can be classed as on-time?

Pete

Saving grace for the bean counters at Jet2 and / or Smartlynx that none of these delays crosses the EU261 delay compensation threshold.

Just went out with Jet2 and was particularly impressed with them - punctual to the minute off the blocks (despite being Saturday afternoon 2nd wave), and one of the best cabin crews I've had for a good while. An impressive operation.

Was thus quite disappointed on the return, which although the same rotation a week later was a Titan subcharter (known even at time of booking). I always thought Titan were themselves a class act who did some prestige work, but a decidedly ho-hum crew all round, including how they handled the departure delay. The safety briefing, which like some others here I always mentally "score", was one of the worst I have seen in a good while, and the pictograms on the briefing card would be incomprehensible if you didn't have an idea what they were trying to get at. At least they might try and print the cards in focus. Cabin crew were 50-50 mixed Titan (dreary brown uniforms) and Jet2, the difference between them was noticeable.

YL-LCV is living up to its on time departures, it's now stuck in Arrecife, presumably tech, due back in BHX 17:10 on Wednesday, 17 1/4 hours late!

Thats going to be costly re-Compo! I wonder if Jet2 invoice the cost for Smartlynx?
Strikes me that, as in all things, you get what you pay for. Bottom Bidder rules KO, as I used to tell my Purchasing Team. ;-)

Another triumph of unpunctuality from YLLCV.
 

Having managed to drag LS1203/4 from a slightly late ex BHX departure to slightly early return landing, the departure of LS1229 to FUE two hours later was an hour late out of the blocks. How does this occur ---Smartwings LCLCY has managed this feat on its 3 consecutive fortnightly rotations?

It sounds like too many occasions for this to just be a coincidence.
Just curious if they could actually claim against SmartLynx?. Although they're leaving late, they still arrive within the 3hr window for EU261, so do Jet2 have a leg to stand on?

New route
Leeds/Bradford to Turin 1x weekly Saturday for the winter 2018/19 ski season.