British Airways - Wannabes & Recruitment III

[HZ123]

At present at waterworld nothing has been stated with regard to cutting back on services this winter. However, you only need to look at this website and aviation publications to see the immediate future does not look very positive. BA is stuck with a high cost base (wages and airport charges) and did not put monies aside for pre-purchase of fuel for the next few years. In other words we not in a very happy situation made 10 times worse by the T5 farce.

[speedmarque]

Reflexline

Company knowledge I'm afraid. I am crew and a trainer. Been in training this week and this is all thats being talked about.

Although it may be Worldwide and LGW aircraft that are grounded, the whole company will be affected as the surplus crew from WW may be redeployed to EF, thus negating the need for new entrants.

[PC767]

I will not quote figures on this public forum but I have been told by a BA colleague that we have now fuel hedged for the next three years at $x a barrel. BA are only shortsighted when dealing with passengers, not money matters.

[HZ123]

It is not the LGW 77's that will be grounded it is most likely that the 77's will be moved to LHR. Replaced by LHR 74's that will continue to serve the existing routes from LGW. I am sure that certainly the two Florida services can and want a 74 for the extra seats. Extra seats can easily be marketed to the tour operaters and the other routes can all operate 74's as most of these routes were in the past served by 74's. The gain to BA is lower costs for the LGW staff operation and less fuel as the routes are not as far. This allows for more efficient and cost effective use of the 77's at LHR. It seems that the mainstay of the fleet will be 77's and 78's in the next 5+ years. I do not know of the fuel purchase but I would doubt that any supplier would do a three year deal at this time, it would be madness.

[CPT5J]

Speedmarque and HZ123,

How do you think this will affect those who are in holding pools for start dates for LGW and EF?

[HZ123]

I you guys will not be effected by these issues and if R & T have their way those in the pool will still be absorbed into LGW & LGW. Should this exchange of a/c take place then LGW may well require more than the original CC numbers speced.

[speedmarque]

IF (unlikely due to flight crew contracts and over-complexity) 747s turn up at LGW the couple of extra crew required by these a/c will still be insignificant when you think that will be a surplus at LGW due to 737 groundings.

Therefore LGW will still have too many crew regardless of 747s or not.

IF BA decide to transfer some existing LGW crew to LHR (if routes transfer to LHR) then there MAY be some openings for new entrants to LGW ONLY, but this is still not guaranteed.

The only thing we are sure of is that something drastic is afoot for the year-long recruitment drive that was planned to be dropped so quickly.

EXPECT THE WORST AND LETS ALL HOPE FOR THE BEST!

[ForwardGalley]

Hey Speedmarque
Interesting thoughts, but have to say it's almost 100% certain that the 777 will go to LHR and we will get the 747. This is on VERY good authority Makes sense as the 777 is more fuel efficient for the long range out of LHR and the 74 suits our beachfleet needs nicely and of course we cost so little as a base.

Our 737 fleet starts its retirement programme in September with firm dates set for the 300 and 500 departures so this is in effect like "grounding" the fleet. We could not operate if we actually mothballed any more than already scheduled to leave us (with no tears I hasten to add!)

Recruitment for EF continues apace internally and externally whilst SFG is still recruiting but only internally at the moment. We have transferred over 100 to EF this year which is unheard of in the past. I believe there is one more course to go in the autumn, so not too many more will leave us. Gratifying to hear that they struggled to get their numbers as loads of people decided they wanted to stay

Interesting times but LGW is destined for a very big part to play in our company's growth - thankfully!!!

[speedmarque]

ForwardGalley

Recruitment has stopped externally.

I hope you are right about 747 but i cant see BA wanting to have (even temporarily during phase in-out) four fleets operating out of LGW. The base is doing well because of its non-complexity.........i cant see that changing to be honest, no matter how good your source.

[ForwardGalley]

Oh gosh, no, we can only be licensed on 3 a/c types as you know. ALL the 777s will go up the road, leaving us with only the 747, 319 and 734 types. Had not heard that external recruitment had been stopped. Interesting. Mind you they are currently looking for LGW crew to become part of the selection team (on Ejobscan currently with 4 workshops planned) wonder if that will be pulled as well then? Its all up in the air at the moment isn't it?

[speedmarque]

we can only be licensed on 3 a/c types as you know. ALL the 777s will go up the road, leaving us with only the 747, 319 and 734

but that cant happen overnight, there will be a transition period where LGW has A319/737/777 and 747. Cant see this happening as LGWs strength is its non-complexity.

[SleepPixie]

Well, I received an automated email just a while ago to say that BA is not progressing with my application. As it's an automated email, I can't get feedback - I now have absolutely no idea whether they just didn't like my answers to the online questions, or whether my age went against me, or what.

I can't re-apply for 12 months now - I'm very disappointed at this outcome. Has anyone here been turned down at first application and then progressed successfully at a later date?

[HZ123]

To make matters worse last months pax figures were down allbeit by 1.5% in First and Club. However, based on that trend the city suggests to break even we would need to be looking at oil prices of $120 a barrel. How likely is that at the moment. LGW to some degree seemed to have taken on too many ex GB routes without the a/c. It seems more likely that you will get 744's and perhaps the transition will take place during the winter sched.

[croggles]

Have just spoken to British Airways recruitment, and they have told me that they are still expecting courses for WW to recommence from September onwards, and that all candidates should be notified within 8 weeks of a course date. They also said that any suggestion otherwise was just the "rumour mill going into overdrive". Hopefully people can take something encouraging from that? I certainly hope so as I'm looking at taking voluntary redundancy in October! Good luck guys, I'm sure your course is just around the corner!

[747-436]

Interesting thoughts, but have to say it's almost 100% certain that the 777 will go to LHR and we will get the 747. This is on VERY good authority Makes sense as the 777 is more fuel efficient for the long range out of LHR and the 74 suits our beachfleet needs nicely and of course we cost so little as a base.

Does Gatwick justify filling 52 club seats on a 744? I suspect down the back on those routes doesn't bring in too much money, so the 744's with the higher premium capacity would probably be better served up at LHR. Obviously the 777's are more fuel effcient, which means it is better to use them on routes with fewer premium passengers.

So I would be very surprised if the 744's came down to LGW to completly replace the 777's.


I would imagine the Cabin crew recruitment may well start again shortly but I guess they are waiting for the winter & next years aircraft plans to be clearer.