BA are recruiting pilots

[G-FATTY]

Hi all,

Thought I would post this and give some ex (and posibly current) RAF , Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Army Air Corps the heads up.

BA are wanting pilots straight out of the services and it says...

"You will need to obtain a UK issued JAA/CAA ATPL(A) or 'Frozen' ATPL before you commence your employment with British Airways, although you do not need to have any civilian flying qualifications at the point you make your application to Managed Path."

Would love to know any thoughts on that quote.

BA Recruitment

[Torque Tonight]

What do you think is wrong with that quote? Not sure what you're getting at.

[MrBernoulli]

I guess that it is just possible that 'Smooth (but curt) Airperator' meant that the quote perhaps should have included these important details:

You will need:

• A minimum of 1500 hours flying experience on any service aircraft.
• If you are interested in being streamed to a longhaul vacancy in British Airways straight from your military service [Does mean that if you don't have the requirements in 2 & 3 below, you can only hope for shorthaul? Not sure.] you will also need to satisfy additional hours and licensing requirements which are:
  1. A UK issued JAA/CAA ATPL(A)
  2. 2000 hours total flying time including 1000 hours on Jet transport category aircraft with MTOM greater than 25 tonnes, or Multi-crew turbo-prop transport aircraft or Military equivalent with MTOM greater than 50 tonnes.
  3. You must also have flown the qualifying aircraft in the relevant, aforementioned weight category, in the 12 months preceding the start of your conversion course at British Airways. [Note: Not the start of your application, but the start of your BA course!]
  4. Further advice is available from the Pilot Recruitment Team.

• Please ensure you have these hours now, at the point of application.

Nevertheless, all the details are in the link provided by the thread originator, and it doesn't excuse the less than helpful answer that was given.

[Torque Tonight]

More puzzled by why this quote:

"You will need to obtain a UK issued JAA/CAA ATPL(A) or 'Frozen' ATPL before you commence your employment with British Airways, although you do not need to have any civilian flying qualifications at the point you make your application to Managed Path."

gets this remark:

Would love to know any thoughts on that quote.

I wonder if G-FATTY is unaware that British military pilots do not hold pilot's licences or that entry into this scheme occurs quite some time before they would reach the cockpit of a BA aircraft.

[VJW]

Actually, while QSP's don't have a civi licence to operate for the military (obviously), quite a few have civi licences too- I previously issued loads when I was at the CAA.

There's a military bridging package for conversion from military to the civi world, mentioned in the Lasors reference on the BA job posting.

[G-FATTY]

Torque Tonight,

Sorry I was not clear.

I was thinking there are many of us already with fATPL, ATPLs etc who always knew we wanted to go in to the airlines, but BA is asking completely ignoring us lot and going directly for ex-service pilots.

RAF pilots and the others are the best of the best and its obvious why BA are wanting to recruit just them.

But, with tonnes of ATPL, fATPL pilots already out there, some with the Type rating to start immediately, I just thought is was very harsh to see they are not interested in anyone outside of the armed forces (even with 1000's of hours on type), and is this just helping to stall the job market from flowing again?

Just my two cents..

[Torque Tonight]

I can't really agree with that. BA is certainly not 'completely ignoring' civvy guys. In fact after a long peiod of no recruitment, in the last few months, there have been four BA job ads for existing civvy pilots and only this one for mil guys. The requirements for these have been surprisingly low and blokes with a year of Ryr or Ezy have been in the bracket.

We're not yet at the stage where BA are looking for zero experience people and I don't think they'll ever want a dodgy far east standalone paid-for type rating with no hours beyond that.

They may both have no commercial time but you can't put military pilots in the same bracket as new flying school graduates - the military guys are experienced professional pilots with plenty of demanding flying hours behind them. BA are just being proactive in recognising this.

Finally BA recruiting some military guys is not going to 'stall the job market'. Retiring military guys have been crossing over to the civvy world all the time and have always been in competition for airline jobs, regardless of what BA have been doing. I know - I was one of them.

Just remember that ALL turnover in the jobs market is good - even that which doesn't affect you directly, because sooner or later you'll benefit from the knock-on effects.

[G-FATTY]

Ok thanks, I just wanted other opinions like yours.

I had not seen any other BA recruitment adverts for civvy pilots out there so from what I saw it looked like they were not looking for anyone outside of the services.

[MIKECR]

The likes of BA and Virgin have always been an ex RAF 'boys club'. If you were a fast jet jockey you went to BA, if you were a multi engine C130 sort of chap then you went to Virgin! Its not that these airlines arent interested in civvy street pilots, its just the way the recruitment system works.

[BitMoreRightRudder]

I had not seen any other BA recruitment adverts for civvy pilots out there so from what I saw it looked like they were not looking for anyone outside of the services.

First round of recruitment was in October for A320/B737/B757/76 rated civvys. Second round of recruitment started a few weeks ago for more A320 and B747 rated guys.