Yes they are being damp leased with Astraeus pilots and bmi cabin crew - BUT assuming dicussions with the Union are satisfactory- some bmi mainline pilots will also carry out a 757 conversion to fly tha aircraft as well!

HWB

Heffer - just to clarify it, what AEU's Part A actually says is:
Which I think you'll find relates to the DirFltOps being able to vary the requirements wrt to the total hours required for command upgrade, i.e. in respect of those pilots whom have relevant & significant operational experiece, albeit gained flying light jets, e.g. such as corporate business jets.

bmi command requirements are in excess of that (4000 hours) & infact all SFOs who are nearing promotion have more like 6000 hours on B737 &/or A320.

Don't forget that most of these SFOs have a shed load of longhaul experience on the A330 as well. :=

Tail-take-off - that figure refers to the 'minimum' requirement... and aside from which, simply having lots of hours in the RHS does not mean that one is going to pass the command assessment sim ride, and / or the subsequent command course.

Astraeus will not disadvantage any of it's own pilots and are not required to by the contract in place. This means that any AEU pilot wishing to bid for LHR will be given preference, including those only rated on the B737. As the AEU B737 fleet is due to reduce I expect that there will be many UK based pilots interested in the LHR base.

The other thing to note here is that AEU have been operating 5 B757s for some time, so one would imagine that the aircraft are already crewed up. The bmi operation does not require AEU to add to it's B757 fleet.

Whilst the company has been through some extreme change, the investment from their backers and the new contracts in place surely mean that those who are there (having seen it through the difficult times) will stay.

Also, I understand there are a handful of AEU F/Os up for command on the B757.

If AEU had to go into the market place for pilots to crew the bmi operation, then it would make sense to use anything bmi could offer; captains and F/Os.

I know for a fact that there are AEU B757 pilots who would be better placed with a commute to LHR rather than LGW.

Good luck to the management on both sides in sorting this one.:ok:

Wrt Uhm, therein the really interesting bit would be how to handle the undoubted disparity between BMI's & AEU's pay scales & T&C's?!

One can certainly envisage a situation where there are two pilots (1 BMI and 1 AEU), of the same rank, flying in the exact same aircraft, on the same route, but being paid different rates / allowances... and that's really going to go down like a lead balloon, isn't it ?!

Based on the way Astraeus have operated in the past, surely they will go to the agencies and get typed pilots on short term contracts? Having said that, there may well be no holes to plug! WRT guys operating on vastly different pay scales..is this the right message to send to the loyal AEU crews whom have stayed through the restructure? Having said that I understand most of the FO's on the 757 and 737 fleet have significant time and presumably the bosses will want to protect thier assets.
Puritan summed it up..this won't be an upgrade passport but may be a chance to put another useful type on the ticket..Best of luck to both the red corner and the blue corner!

It has happened in the past (albeit where bmi was the lessor) that other pilots have undergone a type conversion and then flown as operating crew. The fact that there was a totally different pay structure in place in the two different airlines was immaterial.

A Newsflash issued this morning by BALPA and bmi states that good progress has been made and there will be a positive benefit for the bmi pilot workforce. It goes on to say that there needs to be further discussions with Astraeus before a further details communication will be issued. We need to see what that contains before prejudging the case.

HWB :)

Hmmm,
could make for some interesting CRM moments, I hope it all works out.... I have a vested interest.

Is it true that Bmi aim to introduce centralized load planning and will only require Dispatchers not Load Controllers?

Cheers

Well, we tried that one back in the late 90's.....
I'd be surprised and disappointed if it made a comeback !

Thanks for that, i was just wondering becuase they were testing it out on the WW2901/WW2902 last weekend at Cardiff. I know it is a BmiBaby flight and it would have some cost savings in the long run as you would pay the handling agents less for Dispatch compared to load control.

One major problem is that unless standard loading is used (as currently), then it may cause more problems and delays than what it's worth. I have much more control of a flight if i prepare the loadsheet than trusting somone from Castle Donnington. Any errors would take longer to rectify awaiting for a new loadsheed (not the best for a 25 min turnaround).

IIRC The last time it was all done from a trading estate somewhere outside Edinburgh. Cannot see why it would work any better this time, unless there is an investment in mobile datacomms.

YS

Sorry, bmi and invest? Silly idea!

Puritan
Exactly the same at bmi but the basic hours requirement is higher. If Ashtrays'R'us weren't doing these routes for us these very same FOs would be doing them in the LHS of a 321. Those in the frame have already passed bmi command assessments & I doubt the required standard is much different.

pilots will be doing the loadsheets themselves on the new laptops. had a look at the system the other day and its quite impressive although i forgot to ask about a "hard copy" (they just take figures from the screen), but would assume its sent somewhere to be printed.

So what is required then is for the captain to receive the weights, distribution of bags etc. Then he is to tell the dispatcher where to load the bags etc. and then they complete the loadsheet on their laptops?



Cheers

not wanting to steer this thread into a dispatch discussion but, and i could be wrong, im pretty sure the captain said "tell us how its loaded" so i would assume that to save time theyll be trusting stations to load how they see fit. sorry for being a bit vague but i didnt really have time to discuss it with him in great detail.

I have seen a briefing on a similar automated loadsheet system that my company was looking at. Probably most systems are the same but the one that I saw resulted in the crew member inputting the various load information. Obviously the Captain can't 'sign' an e-loadsheet so the crew member is given a User ID and a Password and this is used to verify who accepted the loadsheet! A copy is then e-mailed from the PDA/Laptop to Ops where it is stored and archived in accordance with the regulations.

A good system!

A laptop on a boeing!!
 

What ever next? APU's that do what it says on the can