easyJet welcomes 100th aircraft

[Hank Birofski]

From www.luchtzak.be

easyJet, Europe’s leading low cost airline, today welcomed the arrival of its 100th aircraft with celebrations at Berlin’s Schoenefeld Airport. The celebrations include a special flight for staff and dignitaries in the brand new aircraft over Berlin - the airline’s most rapidly expanding base in the last 12 months.

The airline’s fleet of 100 Boeing 737s and Airbus A319s is larger than any other low cost airline. Last month, easyJet carried 2.6 million passengers on its network, only Lufthansa carried more passengers in Europe, making easyJet bigger than BA, Alitalia, Air France or KLM.

The growth of easyJet since its launch in November 1995 has been phenomenal, starting with only two leased aircraft operating two routes (from London Luton to Edinburgh and Glasgow). The airline now operates around 650 flights every day on 203 routes to 61 key airports throughout Europe and in the last 12 months the airline carried 27 million passengers.

Not only is easyJet the leading low cost airline in the UK operating from 10 bases, but also offers a truly pan-European service with its five bases on the continent: Basel, Berlin, Dortmund, Geneva and Paris Orly directly connecting destinations without touching the UK, which account for 22% of the airline’s total network.

easyJet has led the low cost revolution in the European aviation industry and its success is due to the increasing demand from consumers for reliable, convenient services at low fares for both business and leisure purposes.

Today’s new arrival from Airbus is the 39th A319 to be delivered from easyJet’s order of 120 aircraft to be completed by 2007. An additional 20 A319’s will be delivered in 2005 to facilitate the airline’s continued plans for expansion and increase passenger numbers by a further 15 - 20% this financial year. The airline also has an option for an additional 120 aircraft from 2007 onwards.

Ed Winter, easyJet’s Chief Operating Officer, hosting the celebrations in Berlin today commented;

“ Today is an exciting day for easyJet, we now operate more aircraft, offer more flights and last month carried more passengers than any other low cost airline in Europe and have exceeded all but one of the flag carriers.”

“Our success has been phenomenal and by giving more consumers the opportunity to fly to key airports at our famously low fares, the face of European aviation has changed forever - flying is no longer elitist and expensive.

“We believe there is still a great deal of potential throughout Europe for low cost services and easyJet intends to be at the forefront of further market expansion across Europe and will continue to play a key role in bridging Europe”.

[In Tiffanys trousers]

Yes, a nice piece of the normal self congratulatory easyJet BS. Problem is many, even here within easyland, continue to believe.

Absolutley correct though, the 100th aircraft has arrived.

However all is not as it seem's.

Question is will they have anybody to drive them. As Mr Winter continues in his quest to cut all fat, and terms and conditions to the bone, regardless of impact, the morale of the flightcrew and others, disintegrates. His concern is maximise the share price. His options and bonuses before retirement become far more attractive.

Many are leaving. Not only line pilots, but Base Senior Captains, TRE's / Trainers, etc. Also large numbers of cabin crew and front line ground staff, all completley fed up with having to put up with the push, push, push, dictates of the management, poor infastructure, and pitiful support of day to day operations.

We've had no insurance doc's, incomplete / inaccurate tech records, whats next ?.

[FlapsOne]

What's next?

Maybe you'll learn how to use the apostrophe!!!!!!!!!!!

[HZ123]

Does anyone ever have anything good to say about an airport or an airline. As a member of the opposition I still congratulate them on their success.

[The Greaser]

It is charming that they waste money on a 'jolly' for Berlin staff whilst announcing proposals for drastic cost cutting across the company a la Ryanair eg. it appears crew food is under threat, uniform allowance out the window, sharing HOTAC etc.

[Flying Quill]

Greaser

From where did you get the information for these assertions?

FQ

[no sig]

Tiffany's Trousers/Greaser

For goodness sake, easyJet is a major success and of course its important for them to take advantage of a PR opportunity like the 100th aircraft, and if it costs few flights and a few bob to make a splash of it, its very cheap and effective advertising.

Thousands of aircrew and ground staff alike are in good jobs as a result, celebrate the hard work of the many who got the business where it is today- that's not BS. If you're not happy its time to move on and let someone else take your place, there's plenty out there who will as time has proved.

[Doug the Head]

Let´s see what happens this summer as lot´s of cabin and flight crew (incl. yours truly) are already looking for greener grass.

Most folks are sick of this fake ´we wanna be like Southwest Airlines´ or ´we are better than Ryanair´ attitude of management.

If you want an example of how the company sees your status: call crewing when they are busy! You will hear an automated message saying to ´please wait and the next available crewmaster will take your call!´

Just in case you were wondering about who is the master and who is the slave... :suspect:

[The Greaser]

Flying Quill, my charming cabin crew told me about it, I think they had seen it in the crew room somewhere. They were not overjoyed with the new plans I have to say.

[Getoutofmygalley]

Flying Quill

Greaser is correct. Us Cabin Crew received an e-mail from our T&G reps on Friday, the day that the 100th aircraft pi$$ take flight happened informing us that the company have approached the union to accept the following changes:

Contribution (full or part) towards the cost of recurrent training
Introduction of self-paid senior cabin crew courses
Crew to share rooms on recurrent training
Discontinue uniform allowance
Accept a lower standard of hotel on short stays
Contribute towards car parking
DIY accommodation - provide alternatives to current arrangements
Crew Food - Find new and innovative ways to provide / alternatives / discontinue etc
Reconsider pay for non-commercial activities
Standardise sector pay
Standardise night-stop allowance
Dual-basing for crews - to help reduction in number of SBY's
Reduce leave entitlement during training

If easyJet get their way, easyJet will be as bad as Ryanair to work for!!! :ugh:

[Bokkenrijder]

Let´s see if easyJet will also celebrate when A319 rated pilots leave in massive numbers...

[easyprison]

"A319 rated pilots leave in massive numbers..."

So are the 737 people!!!

[Orange In Cider]

I tend to agree that all is not rosy in Orange-land, and it certainly is not the same company it was even 2 years ago.

Cost-cutting is all well and good, but I do not believe the current approach is sustainable, and a crisis looms. Aircrew recruitment, Airport Operations, etc. are all incredibly stretched trying to cope, and a slight increase in the leaving rate could cause major problems. Many people leaving (or actively looking to) because there are some greener pastures out there, and the "putting people first" value went out of the window some time ago.

Don't get me wrong, it is an incredibly successful company, and I have a lot of faith in the core business model. I do believe the company will be a major force for years to come. However, I think there are a number of decisions they will need to reverse, and some painful and embassassing times ahead.

[In trim]

Totally agree, the current structure just isn't manageable in the long term. Not long ago staff used to work based on a reasonable salary (albeit long hours) but the 'perks' and the way you were treated made it worthwhile. A lot of those perks have now been eroded and the goodwill can't last forever.

[Mike16]

Hi orange cider

I have just left ezy after 2 years service, i must admit what you have said is so true, it is not the SAME.
There are a lot of crew leaving now, they have stopped the bonus scheme for all crew from this month,so this will affect moral deeply, they are a good company and have a good work model, but now they are turning into the new ryanair, god help them

[Wizofoz]

they have stopped the bonus scheme for all crew from this month,so this will affect moral deeply

Absolute B"£$%^s!! We still recieve our loyalty bonus until such time as we AGREE on a profit-share scheme. No agreement, no change.

As to the supposed changes to the CCs T&Cs, there is no suggestion that ANY of thise will come about. Apparently a union rep got the wrong end of a disscustion about HYPOTHETICAL changes and rushed off an E-Mail. These changes COULD NOT be introduced without a vote from the membership, hich would not be forthcoming unless a BIG payrise was included.

[The Greaser]

Wizofoz, I assume you are not an FO as we lost our loyalty bonus a while ago. I think these 'proposals' do demonstrate the path that the management want to follow in the future.

[Scottie]

I believe they stopped the cabin crew loyalty bonus but the cabin crew voted to get rid of it anyway :rolleyes:

As for our loyalty bonus well I got my last FO's loyalty bonus this year. Either I become a Captain or I take a 5% pay cut next year.....:mad:

[bloggs2]

You have got that right Scottie, don't hold your breath on the command if you aren't bus rated though, cause things are slowing down. Some of the FO's already have a pay cut of around 12% and have never seen a 'loyalty' bonus even though they do the same job, so at least you don't have it as bad as some.

Wizofoz, they still haven't changed the stop date on the loyalty bonus in the t&c's on the company website. What happens if they just get rid of it because they can't 'afford' it. Does Balpa have enough members to challenge that, or will there be nothing they can do about it?

Changers to the Loyalty Bonus Scheme

From 1 October 2005 the loyalty bonus scheme will be replaced by a profit sharing scheme agreed between easyJet and BALPA. The existing loyalty bonus scheme (above) will remain in place until 30 September 2005.

ps they really should run a spell check on a commercial website

[Wizofoz]

bloggs,

The company have agreed to change that wording on the website, though they have been a little "Tardy" in doing so.

The company can no more decide it can't afford to pay the loyalty bonus than it can decide not to pay you next month. It is legally bound by our contract to pay it untill such time as we vote for something we feel is more benificial.

As for commands, they will still upgrade and type-rate a suitable Boeing FO before they will hire an Airbus DEC. Things have "Slowed down" as the fleet will only expand by 17% this year instead of the 24% originally planned. I know of no FO who, having been reccomended, has had to wait more than 6 months for an offer of a course. Do You?

I'd also like to know where your 12% pay cut figure comes from.

[Scottie]

As an FO wanting to jump into the pool we've been told that there 35 there already, 15 to 20 will be offered command by August and the rest after that. So for anyone jumping into the pool expect a years wait.

Definitly no DEC Boeing commands but still DEC for Airbus fleet.

[bloggs2]

wizofoz

I hope you are right about the loyalty bonus, i guess we shall see in a few months.

the 12% comes from the scaled down TRSS wage. The FO's who are on that are paying £23k up front for the training, and are being paid £5k a year less than any other F/O, who is not on the scheme. (5000/40000 = 0.12 approx). So compared to the old F/O wage you are £25k over 5 years worse off, which in my book is a 'b' scale or effectively a pay cut.

As far as commands go, i agree that airbus dec's may be few and far between, but what happens to all the 737 F/O's once the a319 guys start to come through with the required experience in total time AND time on the bus. The available commands are going to become increasingly focussed on the bus fleet. It will be a shame for the 737 guys if they start getting jumped because of the time and difficulty of doing the rating then the command course. I hope the first few guys and gals doing the type rating/command upgrade are switched on as it is going to be hard work. I agree with your "slowed down" as it is all relative. It is not a long time to wait in comparison to the time to command in other companies.It would be nice,though, if we had a fair and transparent process for the upgrade instead of the current system. Like the amount of flying you do, the process of getting recommended for command can vary from base to base.

There are a couple of people on courses over the next few months who have been waiting in excess of 6 months. Even with continued expansion the wait is probably going to get longer. In fact expansion was part of the problem as people were being told that there was not enough F/O's to cover flying duties and enable people to be released for command courses from the 737 side of things.

[Wizofoz]

Hi Bloggs,

All very fair and reanoble. Yes, TRSS is an unfortunate sign of the times, though generally a fairer system than available most other places. Hopefully market forces will prevail in our favour and such things will be consigned to history.

The retoric has been that no FO will be disadvantaged for being on the Boeing. They SHOULD get their upgrade onto the Bus in order of entering the pool, even if it is ahead of a 'bus qualified guy. We need to keep an eye on this and make sure the company comply, but I haven't seen any reason not to take them at their word.

EZY are out to make a quid. We should all be very greatful for this, as I've had the experience of working for companies that couldn't.A lot of guys who want to fly bigguns a long way are getting the opertunity to do so elsewhere, and I wish them well. But as somewhere to hang ones hat and be home most nights, they are about the best around.

I recently had the chance to jump into the FRying pan and, all things considered, felt much better off staying on EZYstreet!!

[bloggs2]

wizofoz

Yes, TRSS is an unfortunate sign of the times, though generally a fairer system than available most other places.

have to disagree, there is nothing fair about it at all. Not only do you pay for the training up front, but the company don't even pay a full F/O wage. Absolutely no risk to the company and they don't even invest in their staff by paying for training.

A fairer system would be to at least pay people the full F/O wage. Still have the money up front for the type rating, showing a commitment to the job from the prospective employee, and if you stay the money is repaid over 5 years, a commitment to you from the company. If you leave early you carry the cost with you and the company doesn't have to chase you for the cash. Can't get fairer than that in this day and age. The current system is taking the piss.

EZY are out to make a quid.

fair enough, but it shouldn't be doing it from their staff.

I recently had the chance to jump into the FRying pan and, all things considered, felt much better off staying on EZYstreet!!

plenty of people are looking at their options at the moment too, and things like the TRSS and loyalty bonus are going to encourage more people to leave, just when easy doesn't really need to be losing crew. Lets not even mention the new Captains who have been trying to get back to a home base that has just gone bus.

[Doug the Head]

have to disagree, there is nothing fair about it at all. Not only do you pay for the training up front, but the company don't even pay a full F/O wage. Absolutely no risk to the company and they don't even invest in their staff by paying for training. Fully agree with you on that one bloggs2! Another fine example of BALPA falling asleep behind the wheel... :mad:

[Wizofoz]

have to disagree, there is nothing fair about it at all. Not only do you pay for the training up front, but the company don't even pay a full F/O wage. Absolutely no risk to the company and they don't even invest in their staff by paying for training.

Not exactley accurate. They repay the training bond over five years, so they do end up paying for the training whilst paying a reduced wage. Certainly they get the pilot for no net training cost, but they don't double dip.

Still, fair or not they do it because they can. There are enough Wannabees who will subscibe, so what exactley would be the companys motivation to do otherwise?

[aw ditor]

The Cake was lousy!:( :(