EasyJet Holding Pool

[Doug the Head]

Staff travel should be for staff and family, - and you should know that

Well, most folks in sell everything (incl their morals) to the highest bidder and bend over in return for a shiny jet rating and 2/3 or 4 stripes, so what's wrong with selling 'slave travel?'

As you pointed out, it's not exactly as if it's a fantastic deal now is it?

[Wingswinger]

Oh, I don't know. The wife and I went to Nice for a few days in October for less than £80 return for both of us including all taxes and charges. Booked quite late too. I thought that was quite good value but I agree that there is some luck involved depending on the route and timing etc.

[Man Flex 37.5]

Shanwick is offering to swap not sell staff travel, i don't see anything (or should i be saying anyfink!) wrong with that if it suits.

[Shanwick Shanwick]

I think the system works quite well. Whilst you are paying the same as a normal punter, you'd only normally be able to get that fare if you booked months in advance and our rosters aren't produced that far ahead.

Thanks for all the pm's, lots of them! Hopefully got something sorted now.

[winch launch]

Hi,

I tried to go over this very long thread, sorry if I missed the answer to my following question.

I am very interrested by living in the geneva area and easyjet switzerland would be the perfect thing for me to settle down there. I would still be interrested by joining EZY in other bases but wondering if it s still very hard to transfer to switzerland afterwards. Is it also hard to transfer or directly get a French base? I am currently a SFO B737 with 2500 TT. If I get hired by EZY what are my chances of getting Geneva or getting it after some time spent in any other base. Won t they put me in Luton to avoid training me on the airbus as I have a 737 rating (Wouldn t mind but not for ages)? Would only putting airbus bases in my base preferences with a B737 rating decrease my chances of joining EZY?

Thanks and a very happy 2009 year to you all with lots of fun at your work and lots of blue skies.

Winch

[pitotheat]

winch
Geneva and Basle bases are crewed by easy (swiss) who have a different contract and operate Command upgrades as per seniority rather than by merit/experience. The selection and training is identical to easyJet. If you want to end up in Switzerland I would recommend you apply for a Swiss base on entry as transferring to GVA/BSL after being with eJ for some time will put you to the back of the crew for Cmd. There is a steady requirement for GVA/BSL crews but like everything it is all down to luck and timing.

The only French bases we have at the moment are ORY and CDG but I would expect LYS to open up as a pilot base soon, it already is a base for CC.

As for your rating it does not matter to us that it is a B737, it does matter you have some jet experience and the likely hood is that you will go directly on an Airbus course even if you were recruited for a UK base. My tip is ask for what you really want but be advised there are many in the holding pool for DEP most with jet experience.
Best of luck
PH

[Akro]

Anyone heard if EZY or EZS will take DEP out of the pool again soon? Or are they just taking Cadets in the near future? When do you think they start to hire again?
How many are in the pool at the moment?

[kick the tires]

expect 100+ first officers this summer although this may be significantly higher. What the make up is, I dont know. ie CTC, TRSS, DCT.

[Norman Stanley Fletcher]

The good news is that there will be between 100 and 200 FOs taken on by easyJet this year - the final numbers being determined by the availability or not of our new 'roster optimizing' software. Alas, the bad news is that every single one of them will be on temporary contracts. Although things are dire outside, I still have doubts if we can find that many A320-rated pilots willing to take temporary work. The only way I can see of achieving this is to promise candidates at the interview that 'every effort will be made to offer you a permanent contract after the summer' - and then sack them all at the end of September as we had always planned! Anyone taking a temporary contract with easyJet over the summer should have no doubt whatsoever that they will not be offered a job over next winter.

The truth is that easyJet's announcement today of their Q1 results is fantastic news (see easyJet.com - Quarter 1 2009 Interim Management statement) in the current climate. I therefore stand by my oft-stated view that easyJet is still a great place to work, and right now is one of the few stable places to be in a very unstable industry.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

Thing is though about the temp contracts, surely the majority of lads (well, TRSS anyway) have probably got at least a RHS at an airline at the moment (be it TP or jet), would they really give that up for the shot of a temp contract? I know how tempting it is to go for a job on an Airbus if you're not on a jet fleet already and all the "trappings" that go with it, but to leave a fairly secure (as secure as we can be anyway) seat to go to the uncertainty of a temp contract, would folks go for it???

I don't think I would.

I can understand for the guys out of work, but for anyone else to leave a seat?? Hmmm....

Mind you it sounds like us TRSS are failry low down the pile anyway so I guess it's all hypothetical.

[Bubair]

Temporary contracts

I do hope this NSF is wrong this time!!
Really no offence NSF, but I hope U2 is really not going down that line also with first officers.
If your numbers are correct I think that it would be quite hard to find enough type rated pilots willingly to join on a temporary contract.

I am one of those really interested in joining but I will NEVER leave my, almost dead, present company to join easyJet only for few months putting my family at risk of subsistence.
I hope my thoughts are shared my the majority of those in the DEP holding pool!!

Bubair

[Flyit Pointit Sortit]

I do hope this NSF is wrong this time!!
Really no offence NSF, but I hope U2 is really not going down that line also with first officers.
If your numbers are correct I think that it would be quite hard to find enough type rated pilots willingly to join on a temporary contract.

I for one have not known NSF be wrong in any of his observations or advice to date. EZY's managment are focused on temporary "seasonal" contracts to suplement winter crewing levels.
However, if EZY fail to get enough take up from the CTC flexi-crew scheme, then they may have to offer full time positions. If so, I suspect that they will be TRSS as they are much much cheaper than DEP's. We can only see what the future brings.

Good luck to anyone in the hold pool

FPS

[kick the tires]

NSF is spot on, I was at the same meeting!

[Bubair]

NSF is spot on, I was at the same meeting!
Today 10:21

Just a question: no one at that meeting stated that it would be very hard to find enough pilots interested in joining on a temporary contract?

[kick the tires]

Yes , there was no discussion on what the make up would be, TRSS, DE's CTC etc.

But I quite agree with you bubair, finding so many to join on temps will be difficult. Sadly it may be the only option for those rated pilots who are out of work.

[Norman Stanley Fletcher]

Alas, there are many ways to make up the shortfall of type-rated pilots if it is required. One of those ways would be for easyJet to use another 'pay-for-line-training' enterprise like the now-abandoned (by easyJet) ATP scheme. In essence, you persuade likely people to undergo the easyJet selection and invite them to pay for the rating and line training. That way you overcome the limitation of the previous scheme of the odd person getting there who would not have passed easyJet selection. It is an extremely cynical way of saving money but I am sure you could generate a bit of interest. In the current climate, however, anyone paying for line training would need to be acutely aware of the likely lack of genuine employment opportunities anywhere in the world for the next year or so.

If ever there was a time to support BALPA, this is it. We need a cast-iron agreement with the company over this issue. As may soon be discovered, it is in everyone's interests to work with the pilots rather against them. At any company your staff can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy - it always pays to look after your staff rather than stuff them at every opportunity. The other big danger facing us is that the company may elect to use CTC pilots as contract captains over the summer like last year, since they cannot get agreement over 'seasonality'. The tragedy of this is that the easyJet pilots are happy to work with our managers to make this the best and most efficient company around. The company has to grasp, however, that no pilot is going to negotiate away his/her future to pay for a few management bonuses. When we have a fuel-hedging disaster on the scale we have, it is amazing to me that there is any discussion whatsoever on saving a few quid on winter captains. Instead of a round of resignations in key jobs, which is what I would have expected, we have an in-yer-face confrontation over pennies while serious pounds are flooding down the plug hole. I don't know what you have to do to get sacked as a manager/director at easyJet, but apparenly losing tens of millions of pounds on speculative deals is not one of them.

Our recent results show that easyJet has a great model and is doing so much right. A short-sighted money-grab by a few ill-intentioned individuals will only serve to undermine what is an excellent company offering a great future to all employees and not just a few.

[TFR]

Fuel hedging fiasco

Just to put some figures on NSF's comments re fuel hedging. The losses due to "Fuel Hedging Fiasco - The Movie" for the year to September 2009 will total some USD 450 MILLION (73% hedged at USD 1094 per tonne - current market price USD 483 per tonne - see here Price Analysis).

To add insult to injury in the same Q1 shareholders report they admit to having ALREADY hedged 27% of the fuel for the year to September 2010 at USD 926 per tonne. Losses from "Fuel Hedging Fiasco - The Sequel" will thus be a further USD150 MILLION - wiped straight off the bottom line.

The losses for 2008 exceed the ENTIRE crew (flight and cabin) budget for the year.

Harrison's bonus for 2008 will be GBP 265,500 and Carr's GBP 81,000

[MX16]

I heard a rumour that the CTC Wings FO's that were dropped at the end of last summer will be offered full time contracts starting March/April time. However, some of the previous posts lead me to believe that's not the case and it's flexi-crew or nothing. Anyone at EZY care to shed some light? Cheers

[Norman Stanley Fletcher]

I am not in recruitment but have spoken to someone in the last few days who is very much 'in the know' - he reiterated what we had been told previously. That is that in 2009 there will be no permanent contracts given out to pilots or cabin crew at easyJet. Don't ask me to justify or explain that, but right now folks that is the way it is. Sorry!

Like everything else in a fast changing environment, recruitment plans at easyJet are set in concrete for the coming year - but the concrete remains wet! Therefore what is true today may not be true tomorrow, so please do not shoot the messenger if what I have said changes in the next few months! Right now, my statement above is correct and anyone taking up a job offer at easyJet that does not specifically offer a permanent contract should expect to be let go at the end of the summer. Do remember - if's, but's and maybe's are worthless and there is no such thing as a 'gentleman's agreement'. My own experience of easyJet is they do 'exactly what it says on the tin'. Therefore if they offer you a permanent contract that is what you will get. If, however, they do not then that is also exactly what you will get. Given the current economic situation, easyJet can hardly be blamed for doing this. Nonetheless, it is bad news for aspiring pilots.

[no sponsor]

I have some sympathy for the fuel hedging team; in Q1/Q2 2008 it would have been argued that only a fool did not hedge. You simply can't fire people every time they get something wrong, particularly with such an inexact science. It's a bitter pill to swallow I know, but it shows at least a decent level of a maturing organisation.

I am sure it is not lost on NSF, but seasonal contracts should be as much an issue for BALPA as paying for line training. It demotes the profession to that of factory workers.