EasyJet Holding Pool
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I didn't know we had a holding pool for individual bases? Last time I knew anything about recruitment we had a holding pool for jobs, and some time after you signed on the dotted line you were told where you would be based
Glad to know things have evolved..................................
Glad to know things have evolved..................................
Join Date: Jul 2001
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The bare bones of the FCO issues are these: our MXP base is currently providing crew for what has effectively been a base at FCO for some time. Because it was not a declared base with infrastructure (crew room to report to, base management etc), the MXP base was deliberately over-crewed to compensate. Therefore, with the announcement last week of FCO becoming a base, they need to sort out the over-crewing at MXP. They way that is being done is to offer FCO bases to MXP staff first and once that has happened the opportunity will be provided to other staff to bid-into FCO. A bit convoluted and very questionable practice but that is the way it is!
Regarding promotions for those on the outside that are interested, we promoted about 30 (can't remember the exact figure) FOs onto permanent part-year (PPY)contracts this year. They basically get a reduced salary to work as captains 25% over the winter and 100% over the summer. It is 75% work overall. A further 10 were offered temporary commands until the winter, with the added bonus of £10k paid at £2k per month over and beyond the normal captain's salary. In addition they go straight in at 100% salary instead of the customary 90% for 6 months. Finally the only pilots we have trained on the Airbus are CTC and crossovers from the Boeing. Included in that CTC group are the ex-ATP (pay-to-fly) folk from last year who actually reached the required standard.
As an aside, I hear through the grapevine that of the total starters on the ATP scheme last year (pay for a type-rating and 150 hours line training), the completion rate was around 50%. That was a bad deal for easyJet and a bad deal for the people involved. It shows how wary you have to be of paying for type-ratings and if CTC/Oxford et al are warning you about aptitude or lack of it then you should listen. There were many reasons for that figure, but the bottom line was that, for reasons not always related to the individuals themselves, the standard of these folk was simply not good enough. These guys/gals have ended up with terrible debt and no job. In some ways it reflects well on easyJet that they did not lower the standard and many of these poor folk simply did not get through. The 'survivors' from the scheme who are now re-employed through CTC are broadly of a good standard. Nonetheless, it is a big warning and is not a situation I would wish to see repeated.
Regarding promotions for those on the outside that are interested, we promoted about 30 (can't remember the exact figure) FOs onto permanent part-year (PPY)contracts this year. They basically get a reduced salary to work as captains 25% over the winter and 100% over the summer. It is 75% work overall. A further 10 were offered temporary commands until the winter, with the added bonus of £10k paid at £2k per month over and beyond the normal captain's salary. In addition they go straight in at 100% salary instead of the customary 90% for 6 months. Finally the only pilots we have trained on the Airbus are CTC and crossovers from the Boeing. Included in that CTC group are the ex-ATP (pay-to-fly) folk from last year who actually reached the required standard.
As an aside, I hear through the grapevine that of the total starters on the ATP scheme last year (pay for a type-rating and 150 hours line training), the completion rate was around 50%. That was a bad deal for easyJet and a bad deal for the people involved. It shows how wary you have to be of paying for type-ratings and if CTC/Oxford et al are warning you about aptitude or lack of it then you should listen. There were many reasons for that figure, but the bottom line was that, for reasons not always related to the individuals themselves, the standard of these folk was simply not good enough. These guys/gals have ended up with terrible debt and no job. In some ways it reflects well on easyJet that they did not lower the standard and many of these poor folk simply did not get through. The 'survivors' from the scheme who are now re-employed through CTC are broadly of a good standard. Nonetheless, it is a big warning and is not a situation I would wish to see repeated.
FlexiCrew ex-cadets at Easy are not paid £1k per month - it is considerably more than that. The £1k/month applies only to those on their initial 6 months as the final part of the cadet course. Anyone can register to join FlexiCrew with CTC.
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210 pounds a day with 17 days guaranteed as a CTC flexi crew. Anyone can join it's true (CTC has already received over 1000 applications) but only 70 got placed this summer and they were all cadets.
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I think I have posted this info elsewhere, but for those interested there is a bit of an update to the winter plans. A number (I do not know how many) of our CTC cadets are being offered winter work. The deal they are being offered is 4 to 6 days work per month at £200 a day plus sector pay. Those days are up to the company and there is no certainty of employment next summer. Realistically, however, those are the people we will be offering summer contracts to next year. Not good, but that is the deal. It must seem very attractive to employ a highly-capable young pilot for less than you would pay someone stacking shelves at Tesco. All the flexibility lies with the company and it makes it almost impossible for the 'lucky' few to find other suitable employment over the winter.
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thanks for the info Norman, are the flexy guys employed only on uk bases or all over europe? just trying to understand if there is still a chance for pilots in the holding pool. if they can cover any pilot need on every base all over Europe with flexy crew then i would consider the holding pool dead.
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The CTC guys are employed primarily in the UK. I believe, however, a few of them have taken up the option of working in Lyon over the summer. The CTC world is now made up of several components. There are the 'cadets' who are 200 hour guys on their first job and are straight out of New Zealand training. We are contracturally obliged to provide them with a job for 6 months. The next lot are the ex-cadets from last year who did 6 months with us, and were then binned over the winter. They are now invited back as contractors via the CTC flexi scheme and are doing another summer with us. The third lot are the ex-ATP self-sponsored type rating guys who did 150 hours flying with us last year at their own expense. They were going to come back to us under a company called Sigma but for a variety of reasons that was not possible. CTC were approached to take them under their umbrella, for the sake of administrative ease and have done so. (The purpose of the foregoing description is to show that the terms CTC and flexi-scheme are not really interchangeable as it is a complex picture.)
Anyway, at this juncture we have an almost infinite supply of cheap and available pilots from the various arms of CTC. What that means in practice is that I cannot envisage any possible openings for good, old-fashioned direct entry pilots through the traditional recruitment route any time soon. I am not directly involved with recruitment, so that is not an 'official' view - others within easyJet may have a different take on things. The bottom line is that if you are swimming in the holding pool, you should not make your plans around a likely career with easyJet. That is not a likely option either this year or next. Sorry to disappoint, but that is how I see it right now.
Anyway, at this juncture we have an almost infinite supply of cheap and available pilots from the various arms of CTC. What that means in practice is that I cannot envisage any possible openings for good, old-fashioned direct entry pilots through the traditional recruitment route any time soon. I am not directly involved with recruitment, so that is not an 'official' view - others within easyJet may have a different take on things. The bottom line is that if you are swimming in the holding pool, you should not make your plans around a likely career with easyJet. That is not a likely option either this year or next. Sorry to disappoint, but that is how I see it right now.
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Informative posts NSF however your statement''Sorry to disappoint, but that is how I see it right now.''was along the same sentiment post 9/11 and already adds to more doom and gloom for those that are awaiting to take flight.
The dynamics of any business(particularly airlines) are such to work everyone harder during a crises and in process demoralise staff.
Management don't look into the future about that fact(staff loyalty)or account for it, especially because the beancounters have to be satisfied with their quarterly reportings. Why don't management try and restructure during the good times instead they are too busy recruiting and training staff?
Never waste a crisis mentality!
Guys that have had their 3/4 years or even those that have commands for a couple of years at eJ might already be thinking about greener pastures and once recruiting resumes that will open up slots for experience levels of any kind. Especially the way management are going about things. It happened at eJ before on numerous occasions and it will happen again!
The dynamics of any business(particularly airlines) are such to work everyone harder during a crises and in process demoralise staff.
Management don't look into the future about that fact(staff loyalty)or account for it, especially because the beancounters have to be satisfied with their quarterly reportings. Why don't management try and restructure during the good times instead they are too busy recruiting and training staff?
Never waste a crisis mentality!
Guys that have had their 3/4 years or even those that have commands for a couple of years at eJ might already be thinking about greener pastures and once recruiting resumes that will open up slots for experience levels of any kind. Especially the way management are going about things. It happened at eJ before on numerous occasions and it will happen again!
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The economic downturn is level-off and is already inverting towards positive figures in France and Germany. This will have a direct effect on recruitments in the forecoming months. I bet next summer will be the kick-off season for mad recruitment waves throughout the world. This hiring trend will rise again with a vengeance.
Interesting to see how this will impact some operators. Isn't starving competitors through intense hiring of their crew a strategy for airlines to put extra pressure on competition ?
Interesting to see how this will impact some operators. Isn't starving competitors through intense hiring of their crew a strategy for airlines to put extra pressure on competition ?
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"This will have a direct effect on recruitments in the forecoming months. I bet next summer will be the kick-off season for mad recruitment waves throughout the world. This hiring trend will rise again with a vengeance."
Hahahaha hahahaha ahahah hahaha ha ha aaaaaaaaaah.
Thanks AF Jockey, cheered me up no end! 
(That was a joke, right?)
Hahahaha hahahaha ahahah hahaha ha ha aaaaaaaaaah.
Thanks AF Jockey, cheered me up no end! (That was a joke, right?)
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abc1 - I hope you are right about people seeking greener pastures. From where I sit there are not many greener than easyJet right now - that view is held by the overwhelming majority of easyJet pilots. No one is saying easyJet is perfect but there really is no airline out there right now that is so much better than us who is recruiting in any numbers. A couple of our Antipodean brethren are departing for Jet Star but the likes of BA, Virgin etc are kicking people out. They historically have taken large numbers of our pilots. In addition, the more 'exotic' operators like Qatar, Emirates, Brunei, Etihad etc are not really looking too much like safe places to be right now. Clearly there will always be a trickle of people leaving for one reason or another, but there is no one recruiting in any numbers who would be considered a whole lot better than we are. We have in excess of 200 First Officers fully ready to take up command slots when they appear - so there is no requirement for DECs. Any pilot who leaves will effectively be replaced by a dirt cheap CTC cadet, who in turn will be replaced at the end of 6 months by another dirt cheap CTC cadet. If the grass is greener, go for it - alas it will be a one way trip as once gone there is no way back.
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slave labour not jobs...
Well NSF, I need to ask the question which I feel has not been addressed. You appear to be smug in your enlightening quest to keep all who are swimming on Prunne upto date in Orange land vacancies, and how they are the only employer in aviation to be employing pilots.
Why are the Orange CC (Balpa Membership) allowing management to have slave partime labour fill these apparent vancancies on flumpence salaries, and temperary contacts???
Iether there are jobs or their are not!
And according to you there are 200 FOs to get an upgrade to the left hand seat come summer???? No doubt flying with a poor lad / Lass from CTC on approx` £1k a month! Then If management see fit to give them a further 14 days work a month in winter ammounting to £800 a month. (A 250 hour cadet who after funding his/her loan ends up with nothing!! Not even a free cup of coffee. )
You and yours need to stop this outrage, and degregation in T&Cs stopped now!!
Do you think for one minute they will ever give a full time contract to anyone given this sad state of affairs.
CTC are nothing but a brookfield, by another name.
Is this the state of the industry, and the legacy we are fostering for our future pilots???
Portside..
Why are the Orange CC (Balpa Membership) allowing management to have slave partime labour fill these apparent vancancies on flumpence salaries, and temperary contacts???
Iether there are jobs or their are not!
And according to you there are 200 FOs to get an upgrade to the left hand seat come summer???? No doubt flying with a poor lad / Lass from CTC on approx` £1k a month! Then If management see fit to give them a further 14 days work a month in winter ammounting to £800 a month. (A 250 hour cadet who after funding his/her loan ends up with nothing!! Not even a free cup of coffee. )
You and yours need to stop this outrage, and degregation in T&Cs stopped now!!
Do you think for one minute they will ever give a full time contract to anyone given this sad state of affairs.
CTC are nothing but a brookfield, by another name.
Is this the state of the industry, and the legacy we are fostering for our future pilots???
Portside..
