Ryanair pilots: Are you happy?
 

After all the debate about poor lifestyles at easyJet, I had to ask the above question.Can lo-cost be a pleasant place to work? Do you have the same fatigue levels as us at easy?Is your lifestyle as disrupted as ours at easy?
Just been offered a slot with Ryanair so would appreciate honest answers.

Whenyou first join you'll get messed around a lot by the training department and will probably take you around 2 months before you're finished. Why? Because of the fact they are hiring so many people and only have 1 sim and a limited number of instructors. Once you've got over that hurdle and tour on line it's good fun.

There is a very low turn over with pilots at Ryan Air and I've been told that if people leave they join outfits like Emirates. So if you plan on staying in Europe and you enjoy flying, Ryan Air is the place.

O.W.K. is correct in saying that FR is the place to be if you like Europe. When I got offered a job with them, I was told that I would have to up sticks and shoot off to any of their european bases for an undefined period of time as this was part of the contract ! I didnt fancy the suburbs of Brussels, High in the hills north of Milan, Deepest darkest forest SW of Frankfurt nor would I fancy a winter in Skavsta with a pint over £11 !! Worth bearing in mind cos when you sign the dotted line you wide open for being done over big style !! On the other hand, have camp bed will travel !!!

The best airline I have worked for in Europe. The hours are 900 a year, but with no night stops, no night flying no messing about with rosters and a stable 5-3 I never feel tired. I would not leave Ryanair for anyone else in Europe at the moment.
Good Luck if you join us

No night flying..........I fancy finishing at 3:30pm every day in December......where do I sign?

AverageJoe , although I have no doubt about your first statement that you have never worked in a better airline, the last statement shows either 1) ignorance or 2)masochism.
If it happens to be 1), I can provide you with a list of at least 50 airlines in Europe whit better salary, working hours, schedules, HR , crew meals you don't have to pay for and last but not least clean aircrafts to work on. If it is 2), enjoy, you must be on top of the world. :}

Pilotofjet
Excellent pay, probably among best of Eu 737 crews
Excellent rosters,produced 4 weeks in adv with guaranteed
days off,fixed blocks of earlies and lates
Excellent aircraft,brand new 800's,with approx more than 100due
Excellent prospects,promotion to left seat(and left seat pay)
within 2/3yrs depending on joining hrs
Excellent people,great mix of guys&gals in ops and on line
Excellent share option scheme, up circa £100k in 2 yrs
Excellent pay inc last year, 3% up 6 months after 9/11

In summary things couldnt be better here right now.
Not sure how or if the buzz thing will affect us, but so far
theres no better airline in europe for crew t&c's.

King A. Sorry pal your just wrong.Be surprised if u can find one
(never mind 50)to match above.But feel free to try,am always
available if price is right here in europe.

King Arthur I would be greatful, if you could provide me with the list of fifty airlines who pay better than Ryanair and have better conditions and who are currently hiring Captains. As I am not a masochist I must definitely be ignorant. But as the Scotish proverb says "It is better to be happy in your ignorance than miserable in your cognisance.":=

Can anyone tell me how long to a command? I have lots of jet command hours but no type rating and have to pay for the rating and join as an FO.

DD says about a year-18months.

Not a difficult task providing the names AverageJoe , as everybody on pprune knows. What should be more difficult is to meet the requirements to be hired.

JET A1 -

Everything you said is the god awful truth, except for the pint you mentioned. It really isn't that expensive. :cool:

Btw, just heard them flying into Skavsta today being quite embarrasing about braking action, but I'll leave it at that or I'll get Danny breathin' down my neck about FR-bashing.:=

King Arthur I think I am a fellow ppruner and I don't know so what is your list and what are the figures????

Claiming things is easy backing them up with real info is more difficult but more important!!!

I hope you are right ILUV2FLY ! I resigned from an established UK company yesterday to take up a contract with Ryanair (800 Capt) It certainly looks like being VERY different but all the people I know working there seem to enjoy it!

Welc0me onboard 737man.You're joining one of the best ops
for crew t&cs in europe.Rosters are best in the business,and
hope that good results means that pay and share ops will con-
tinue to rise.Hope the buzz thing doesnt disrupt our lot here,
but chat in ops last pm suggests that B will be kept separate.

Only one downside to FR is constantly having to read abuse on
pprune abt ryanair.Mindless and just plain wrong guff from King
Arthur is a perfect e.g. of what you should expect.He Still cant list 1 never mind 50 better eu airline crew operators for crew t&cs.
So put on the hard hat for pprune but otherwise.....enjoy!

Better still as a new recruit why not give all us ppruners your
view of fr life after a month or two.At least it'll be fact based
rather than King A's fiction.

I would suggest you read between the lines in the thread "Ryanair and Buzz"

Ask the guys at Buzz if they want to join Ryanair...

:*

ILUV2FLY, Good man, great to see a happy pilot for a change! As regards FR bashing on pprune, just remember the words of Mr Oscar Wilde, there is only one thing worse than being talked about and thats not being talked about (and I know the FR boys and girls are well able to handle themselves):D

glad to see so many people interested in Ryanair.
It is not all a bed of roses but i would say it's not bad. The people you fly with are generally nice, any problems that you may encounter will be related to the management side of things, but this is the same in any company.
Provided you accept you have no rights then you will fit in.
had to temper iluv2f lie's 'over optomism'.
best of luck

Looks like it's pistols at dawn between MOL and Jim McAuslan...

The Guardian
Mr O'Leary revealed that Buzz was likely to lose €30m (£20m) this year. He claimed his strategy would transform its fortunes within 12 months to produce a profit of €10m.

In a message that appalled unions, he said there was no question of negotiating: "There's no point in sugaring pills. This is losing shedloads of money and has to be turned round. We're not going to sit around having consultations or going through some laborious process. This is not stopping for anybody. For those who don't want to sign up to the project, the door's out there on the left."

At least 100 of Buzz's 500 staff will lose their jobs. The brand will disappear, to be swallowed up by Ryanair. Among the first routes to go will be Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt - all to "high cost" airports where planes take longer to turn around.

Mr O'Leary said Buzz's problems were attributable to its Dutch owner, KLM: "It got saddled by KLM with the ****tiest set of aircraft in the fleet, flying to ****ty airports and with a few too many employees for an airline carrying 2m passengers."

He said he was sure his plans would provoke "hell, brimfire and damnation" but insisted that if unions attempted to strike, he would "close down" the airline.

The British Airline Pilots' Association reacted with dismay. General secretary Jim McAuslan said he had asked for a meeting with Mr O'Leary. "However charismatic he may be, he is not above the law. You cannot go just hiring and firing people. And you don't motivate people by putting the fear of God into them."

The TGWU also expressed concern, emphasising its "strong determination to stand up for our members' rights in the face of robust warnings on job losses".

Ryanair disclosed its plans for Buzz alongside nine-month results showing that its own low-cost strategy continued to be a moneyspinner, with pre-tax profits up 60% to £216m.

But Buzz's demise caused particular gloom in Bournemouth, earmarked as its second base. Buzz had already sold 55,000 tickets for six destinations from the south coast town, which were due to begin on March 30.

Bournemouth airport's managing director, Glyn Jones, said he was "surprised" by Ryanair's decision, pointing out that the airport had built an extension to handle Buzz's flights. Christopher Chope, the local Conservative MP, said the airport's plans would be ruined.

Averagejoe & Iluv2fly

How about...

applying to an airline that gave you travelling expenses to interviews,

an airline that pays for all your training,

an airline that has different fleets long/short haul to allow you to chose your lifestyle,

an airline that gives you a bidding system that allows you to chose which days you work and where you fly to,

an airline that feeds you when you're at work,

an airline that allows you to go part time if you need to look after your children/other interests

an airline that matches any charitable contrubutions you give from your salary slip

an airline that gives you a bloody good pension

the list goes on...

:O

yes, the list of airlines with bloated costs and loss-making strategies does indeed go on....

Do you fly for Ryanair Bucking Bronco ? If not, pipe down and allow the rest of us to make our own decisions. Ryanair is a low-cost operator, not British Airways - probably the reason why it is curently making lots of money, and looking a very attractive proposition to those of us willing to put some thought into the future of European aviation......which I doubt, by the way, will include all of the benefits you list above....