Britannia
 

All training has been cancelled for the pilots selected, over the last couple of months.

A shame, but hardly surprising I think?

I sincerely hope that all those affected are given first pickings as and when training resumes again. I am sure that Brits will do this, cos they are a quality outfit.

Sorry again to those affected.

I think this is a set back for these guys rather than really bad news, Brit have a huge amount of retirements over the next few years and will need crews.

If they do what they've done in the past, the people will be put in a holding pool and given courses at some point in the future.

Tailscrape is right, they are a quality outfit and are worth hanging on for.

Not sure if this has helped any, best of luck to all of you.

History repeats itself. Once upon a time, in the last really serious bit of trouble, some twenty five years ago, if my failing memory serves me right, a B.E.A. Trident was doing circuits at Prestwick. This was a batch of ex Hamble cadets being checked out. The call came from London: "Scrub!" The training captain pleaded "Look, I've got this bloke in the seat who needs one more circuit to get checked out. Please give me one more circuit and at least the poor guy's got the type on his licence!" You can guess the response.

No, I wasn't that unfortunate young man. I don't know if he ever kept the faith and eventually made it, but hundreds of others did. Their careers spiralled off into all sorts of directions: Air Anglia, Dan-Air, Britannia, Monarch, Air Europe, Orion, Cathay, Caledonian and finally, incredibly, British Airways.

Us old "grey beards" have seen it all before. Some of us more than once. This time around, providing some madman doesn't blow up the planet, I'm still optimistic, as you have to be in this lark anyway.

Good luck!

[ 22 September 2001: Message edited by: Georgeablelovehowindia ]

Lost my job yesterday with Britannia. Extremely upset, but I thought it would be coming. If they do decide to recruit,I'll be given a ring. Until then I'll have to bide my time and keep current. Any other people out there in the same situation?

Tigro and Co.

Guys and girls, As a personal comment, I'm in Brit and involved with recruitment, I just found out about the recent decisions and felt for you in a big way. Banging on the doors is not nice and what has happened is doubly cruel. To echo one of the above comments, if you can, Brit is worth hanging on for. The demographics mean that jobs will be there, lets all hope the effects of recent events are as short lived as they can be.

regards

Chinchaser.

Chinchaser, I will without doubt wait for Britannia.

I too recieved the bad news yesterday. 9 days from my starting date. I thought it was too good to be true...and it was.

MAX :cool:

[ 22 September 2001: Message edited by: MAX ]

Hey guys, I'm in the same boat.....was supposed to be on your type course, Oct 01 at GECAT / LHR. I sincerely hope that we will all meet in the not too distant future, and make a success of everything which is going on. The hold pool is a good thing, lets just pray that this is over sooner rather than later.

Cheers,

starship :)

I was meant to start on Nov 5th. Lets make sure this posting keeps going, it's definately worth keeping in touch with people in the same boat. Lets hope that this will be a shortlived as it can be, and we'll all be training with Britannia soon.

I was on the october course as well :(
A real shame since I was offered a start date last march and because of my boss intervention who never allowed me to go at that time, here I am today, without a job.
Since the like us seem to have gathered on that thread, how about getting in touch and sharing info as they come ?
Hope we will see better days sooner raher than later.

Hi again guys, Yeah, we need to keep in touch to at least get as much information amongst us as possible.

Keep the thread going, by whatever means.

May be able to shed some more light on things from sources inside soon, and will post it here as and when things are known.

Best wishes, Hope to see you all very soon.

Cheers,

starship :)

like everyone else here i was totally gutted to hear the news. I was on th 05th Nov course.

However guys we're all professionals and by the sounds of it very positive about the situation. Lets stick together and hope that we can get back on a course in the New Year.

In the mean time i'll be spending my 1 months salary renewing my IR and Medical.

PS. My wife just lost her job at Virgin after 6 years service. and my company is just about to close down so i'll be working at Tesco's over Christmas :)


- - - - - - - - - - - -

keep your chin up :D

Hi guys. I rang the girls at HR the second I got the letter to clarify a few things. I was told that 'yes' we would be contacted should they start recruiting again but the bottom line was they cannot possible know when that time will be. The company wants to look after its pilots on the line firstly. I was told to keep current and that there may possibly be another small interview and sim ride when or if we get a call.

In the meantime keep in contact. Oh, i have interview for a citation job so wish me luck. God knows I need it!!

Also i have released my email address so we may be able to get on first name basis.

MAX :cool:

[ 24 September 2001: Message edited by: MAX ]

Im so sorry to here of all those who sucessfully made it to Britannia have had their course postponed.

I hope that its not too long before you start. In the meantime, I wish you all the best of luck.

Regards,
Homer

At the request of INLAK,
I bring up this thread which was burried under 10 days of total carelessness... :cool:

[ 30 September 2001: Message edited by: Dudley ]

Hi again everyone..

Don't know what everyone has been told, however this is the state of play as far as I can see it.

Courses which had been filled, ie October and November are to be kept in a holding pool for the forseeable future, pending the outcome of the present situation.

The company do not have any idea at present what the timescale is to the re- establishment of training, however should the situation change at all, then we will be contacted.

Should training be re-established within a reasonable timescale then a returning interview and possibly a sim check again is what may be in order, this however can not be confirmed yet.

The best advice, as stated by BAL is to keep in touch with HR and to gather information amongst us all as and when it comes to fruition.

The only good thing is that BAL is still short of crews, and that can only mean that recruitment would start again at the earliest convenience once a clearer picture of the current situation is gained. The crews that are on the line are being taken care of as far as I can see, which can only spell good things once we finally get into that RHS.

Retirements are here too.

I feel that the present situation, as said before will be a temporary setback and that courses will be offered in the future.

If we all look at it positively...at least we may have that chance. Those guys who have not got into a holding pool so far may have
longer to wait. I hope that everyone finds success in these difficult times, and that we will all be on our type course in the not too distant future.

MAX, if you did go for the Citation job, all the best to you...if it did not work out for you...hope we all see you with Brit soon.

Keep in touch,

cheers,

starship :)

[ 30 September 2001: Message edited by: starship ]

Commiserations to all of you who have had your courses put on hold.

I was I this position a couple of years ago. It took a year before I got the call back, but it did come! We had to go through the selection procedure all over again, but the same people seemed to come through and were selected.

Having done it all again a second time, there was another delay of a few months, but the call up eventually came! We were told there may be another short interview but in fact this didn't happen.

I don't think anyone can predict what might happen in the coming months, but I will be having some contact with the training department in the next few days, so I'll try and find out what the current situation is.

It may be a couple of weeks before I reply as I'm away from home for a while, but I'll find a computer somewhere if there is any news.

Fingers crossed for you all.

Hola again and back to the top,

So what is everyone doing? Do we sit on our backsides and pray that the phone will ring? Maybe it will never ring. I for one wont be sitting and waiting. Im not prepared to drop prospective employers as fast as...Britannia dropped me. I want nothing more than this to blow over quickly but the reality is the phone call may never come. Im sure some of us have been in this situation before?

I read an article in the Financial Mail with the only Brit on the board of Pressaug. He said no major layoff decisions until at least 6 weeks when they have a clearer picture of it all. That being said, just how are charter companies fairing? Havent heard much from the mainstream media but I haven't really dug too far. Anybody know? As this will reflect whether we get a call in the future or not.

MAX :cool:

[ 09 October 2001: Message edited by: MAX ]

[ 09 October 2001: Message edited by: MAX ]

Guys and girls,

For what its worth the internal picture in Brit is still cloudy as far as those of us on the line are concerned. We had intended to recruit 40-50 pilots this winter, that,as you all know, is now on hold. The good point is that you have completed the selection process, therefore brit will call you. Currently there is talk of being 3 hulls down next summer but this is unconfirmed. Allowing for those retiring and leaving for other reasons means that currently it would appear that the pilot force is stable, ie no redundancies, but as with everything recently things change fast. There are redundancies planned in the support staff roles but not flight crew. Again no comfort, but those who did get through the selection process are few in number compared to applicants, plus those deemed suitable by the team are getting fewer so stick with it in the meantime. Keep in touch with HR it will happen just not as soon as we all hoped.

Regards


Chinchaser.

Thanks Chinchaser for the update, I sincerely hope that you are all ok on the line, and that we will join you in the not too distant future.

Cheers, The Hold Pool!

starship :)

Having spoken to those 'in the know', the situation is pretty much as chinchaser has already said. The figure of 40-50 recruits was based on retirements and also a number of people leaving for other airlines ie British Airways and Virgin. Obviously that will not now happen so even if holiday bookings pick up, I can't see all the courses being reinstated.

All options are being considered, so don't give up hope. There has been another thread mentioning the posibility of aircraft going to Australia for Quantas. It is only a rumour mind you, but it does show you that things can sometimes unexpectedly improve!

The peak booking period is after Christmas, so fingers crossed that nothing really does stand in the way of the British and their annual holiday.

Heard today a rumour of a course in January. Can anyone back this up?

Some comments from recent chats at FL390 suggest that there will be no pilot out of work from Britannia. Planned command courses for the winter will be going ahead and recruitment may commence early in 2002.

A possible twist to those of you on the Britannia hold file could be the ever increasing number of experienced jet pilots now looking for a new employer. It may be possible that Britannia will look at recruiting those experienced 737/757/767 pilots ahead of those originally told they were on the hold file. So, whilst this is not necessarily the fact, by all means keep all your options open and keep in close and constant contact with Britannia HR.

Good luck, Britannia appears to have weathered the storm reasonably well for now - who knows what tomorrow brings.

Stay tuned.

Just to support vnavspeed, this appears to be the case, and certainly as far as i'm aware the intention is to pick up the hold pool first.

regards

Chin.

Hi all it's Tigro back again but under a different username. Max, did you get the job flying the learjet?

I myself have heard some rumours from friends who work for Britannia. Apparently the command courses which were meant to happen at the end of this year, have been delayed until after the Spring. Therefore, between now and then, S & F/Officers will have to be recruited to replace them. I think Britannia will look at type rated pilots first but they still have to go through exactly the same selection process.

I would also like to say thank you for the postings from people currently working for Britannia - they have been extremely helpful in these awful times! I just hope the wait is not that long, but who can tell?tigro [img]null[/img]

Good thread this. Decent gen.

WWW

Has anyone applied to Britannia after the WTC disaster and been interviewed?

I requested an application form for the Second Officer job after the disaster since I match their basic criteria (I've only recently got my IR). I received a form, promptly returned it and got a PFO letter back.

I would like to think that this is because they have frozen recruitment, however this is probably wishful thinking of me and they just don't like me! :( I can't see anything wrong with my application unless they are operating a higher TT or a 509-only requirement internally and not telling potential applicants about it? The form didn't have any of those difficult 'why do you want to join xxx airline'-type questions - they just wanted personal details and I've got a fairly sound background (good A levels, an engineering masters degree and solid work experience in a prior career both for a multinational and my own business), so I was a little surprised not to get a shot at an interview. I'm not one of those arrogant 'the world owes me a job' types, I just thought I stood a good chance of at least getting an interview with BY because of their Second Officer scheme. Maybe they didn't like my ugly mug :D.

Anyone else got any info on this? Good luck to those of you in the pool - I'll be trying again once I've increased my hours tally a little.

cheers!
foggy

[ 27 October 2001: Message edited by: foghorn ]

A friend of mine has got a form and he phoned to find out the situation. He was told to hold on to the form until the New year and send it in then.

I would be interested to know whether of not they are interviewing type-rated pilots at the moment or whether they will use the 'so-called' hold pool.

I got the impression from my letter that all bets were off and there was no 'Hold pool'. It would be great if some-one could confirm this.

Got a phone call one thursday (Years ago)..."Wot you doing on Monday? How about getting a 75/767 rating?"

Things will change suddenly.

Keep phoning for news. Make yourself available at short notice, if poss. If BAL doesn't recruit in the not too distant future, then I'll eat my hat (and my roster)

Good luck.

Ok gang, neck on the line time i suppose.

as part of the recruitment team, the situation as i understand it internally is fairly straight forward, BUT, this is as i understand it, it isn't official, plus things change fast and often the other way to that which we would expect.

with regards to those who have made it through the recruitment process, both stage one and two ( inc the sim). As a team we have spent time and effort to select you and you have passed the standards set, plus the face fits in the brit way. ( sorry to sound like official bumf!!) Its pointless to spend the time to recruit and then bin.Brit is going to crew, Chronologically challenged P1's can't change that, the numbers required will change dependant on what happens fleetwise etc but simply your first in the queue.

FOGHORN. I started in Brit with 400 hrs and a not too disimilar background. Keep current as best you can, doing some flying instruction pays dividends skills wise, just don't try to live on it!! When we look at people on stage one, bar the standard battry of Psycho, math and verbal reasoning, we look at your character. At stage two in the sim is wether you can fly to the standards required by the trainers. People who are on jets have stuffed this, guys like yourself have passed it, personally i used the force and it worked!! ( I think !) In short its worth applying.

Bluebaron. there is no recruitment going on at the moment, type rated or otherwise. the only cross over training that is going on is the guys and girls on the 73 being reroled to the 75.

Constant Speed (?) TIGRO> Sorry to rain on the parade, Whilst command courses are still on going, Hi age work force therefore more retiring captains, if we are going to be 3 hulls down ( not confirmed) then we are due to have excess crew next season for a period.
I would presume that as bookings are currently way down for next season high cost items, ie us, are going to be looked at very carefully. hopefully, as I don't want to spend all of next summer lookind at the moon, recruitment and training will restart, but later rather than sooner I would say is the current bet.

Keep the chins up and don't give up guys and girls. It is not nice being were you currently find yourselves, but when it happens you will look back and say it is all worth it. You have earn't the right to apply, in itself a challenge requiring dedication, The day will come just keep beliving it.

regards

Chinchaser. :confused:

chincaster, thanks for the info and i would like to second cruise Alt when he states
"I would also like to say thank you for the postings from people currently working for Britannia - they have been extremely helpful in these awful times! I just hope the wait is not that long, but who can tell?"

Thanks again. :)

Thanks chinchaser - I'll apply again early in the new year. I should be an FI(R) by then also. Whether I've managed to get an Instructor's job, well, that's a whole different story!

Every day, a different challenge, but onwards and upwards - giving in is a sure fire way of never landing that job!

cheers!
foggy.

[ 28 October 2001: Message edited by: foghorn ]

What up with the Britannia Web can get past

Click Here To Continue To Main Britannia Airways Website

works for me this is all you're going to get though......


RECRUITMENT
PILOTS

Click To Close This Window

Thinking of becoming a pilot?

You can apply, subject to educational qualifications, for a commission in the Royal Air Force as a Pilot. On completion of your service you are an ideal candidate for a career in Civil Aviation

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All of the above takes time and a great deal of dedication. Good Luck !

Chinchaser,
Thank you for the advice, any further news will be greatly appreciated. To keep current, I'm flying a Beagle Pup out of White Waltham and going to the US in Jan to fly a twin for 15 hrs. Also doing a sim at EGTK in the 737-400
If you are ever in London, pop into Transair and I'll buy you a beer. :eek: null

Thanks everyone for the info! Greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

starship :)

Foghorn

Congratulations on the IR, and I’m sorry that it’s such a rotten time for you to be looking for your first flying job.

However the large number of retirements that the major UK airlines are facing over the next few years (as their senior pilots reach compulsory retirement age) are a fact of life, and so, sooner or later, someone will be recruiting!

Hang in there, and good luck with the job hunting!

Best wishes,

Trident Sim

Thanks Trident Sim!

Refreshing the thread