easyJet: Equal Opportunities?

[Mungo Man]

From the easyJet recruitment webpage:

Equal Opportunity and Fair Treatment
easyJet is committed to being an equal opportunities employer as we wish to encourage all our employees to make the best use of their skills and experience. Our policy aims to ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment. We will treat staff, potential staff and the public that we serve fairly and with dignity.

and also

Pilot Careers

We are looking for highly talented pilots that will have a good cultural fit with easyJet. You must possess personality, integrity and display exceptional levels of professionalism and customer service. If you’re looking to join an Airline that values its pilots, has exceptional training and opportunities whilst offering superb rewards and benefits then you will find all the information you need by clicking on one of the links below.

So, I'm highly talented, and I'm experienced, (just not on an Airbus). My current employer has never had any trouble from me. I've got 3200 hours experience flying around Europe including 5 winters and have 4200 hours total time. I know easyJet don't owe me anything, but why oh why can I not even apply to join them?

How can experienced FOs not be eligible to apply to easyJet? How can this be in accordance with their equal ops statement? In order to apply I would have to hide all my flying experience, and stump up 10s of thousands of pounds. I really thought all of this was going to change 2 or 3 years ago but its just seems an unbreakable trend. In fact, even if I had the money to spend on a type rating they still make it difficult and convoluted, as far as I can tell from the CTC website they still make you do an advanced jet course and MCC again as part of selection and of course you have to pay for that privilege. All I would like to see is a return of the TRSS scheme, that would do me, but I can't see that coming back.

[BIGBAD]

You've answered your own question, they're want to spend as little on the training to get you on the line. No type rating = higher training cost, and since it's a business it's the bottom line that counts. No TR or no money = no chance, sorry nothing personal, it's just the way the industry is at the moment. Its a sh1t situation in the industry but unfortunately too many of our colleagues are willing to spend tens of thousands to get a jump up the ladder

[flieng]

The state of the Industry

I really for you, as I do many good people I fly with who cannot progress due to this situation where people are paying to do the job. I, m afraid I don,t see this changing in the near future if ever, unless these pay to fly people are involved in a hull loss(heaven forbid).

[inner]

It is a strange world. I hear a lot of fresh young guys complaining they dont find any chance, but opposite i hear also ( me included) that experienced people also dont get a shot. It is a paradox. Ans yes i'm fed up with this. At the moment i'm looking for a new job outside aviation. I dont know any industry which is so crazy and frustrating as this one. Strange, but somehow i'm hoping to find a new start and leave this madness behind. Never thought that my aviation career would end like this. (ow yeah, i'm still employed as pilot)

[brizzol]

It's all about money.

Money. Profit. Boardroom Bonuses.

They don't care about you or your experience. You're too expensive.

It stinks. Sorry, but that's the truth of it.

[Mungo Man]

Originally Posted by inner

i'm fed up with this. At the moment i'm looking for a new job outside aviation

If only the wannabes could hear just how many current pilots say this. I hear the same thing said by a surprising number of colleagues. Many people talk of early retirement even though they can't afford to retire financially, while others hope their small self-run business will grow big enough so they can give up flying. Granted, that's just talk, but it shows the low morale some guys have.

[McGoonagall]

At the moment i'm looking for a new job outside aviation. I dont know any industry which is so crazy and frustrating as this one. Strange, but somehow i'm hoping to find a new start and leave this madness behind.

Come and join us!! Just 35 hrs a week, no Sundays, roster confirmed six months ahead, the ability to swap days as you want. Ł45k basic, work your Sundays and it becomes Ł53k, be greedy and work five days a week and your salary goes up to Ł66k.

Drive trains for money, fly for fun. You know it makes sense.

[inner]

No no not just talk. Send already some cv's to non aviation companies. Like brizzol says, 'it is all about the money', but that counts also on my side.

[angelorange]

Voice your concerns beyond PPRUNE - Time to make a stand

If people want change then put it in writing to EZY CEO, to the Media, to your local MPs. Use GAPAN and other independant aviation resources, start an online No.10 petition, send your views to EASA about the current training cadet system where low houred are fleeced and treated badly on Flexicrew contracts (CHRIP101 details concerns). Tell them how some only get 6 months expenses to fly with airlines linked to these schools. Tell them how these cadets are prioritised over experienced TP and other jet crews.

EASA is deeply concerned over automation airmanship post AF447 - the final report will come out next month. Part of the problem is recognised as a lack of airmanship and understanding of attitude/manual flying when the automation gives up.

EASA themselves are beginning to see that the current JAR/EASA integrated 250h frozen ATPL (and indeed MPL) straight into an automated airliner like an A319 is part of the problem.

What the UK/EIRE and some other EU LoCo airlines are doing with short term contracts and poor initial training with little manual flying once on the line is making a bad situation much worse than it was even 3 years ago.

Make your concerns known here:

EASA Cockpit Automation Survey

[MIKECR]

Its not just easyjet Mungo Man. Nearly all of the big UK jet operators now are nigh on impossible to get into as an 'experienced' FO. They simply dont want them. Its all cadets from from the likes of CTC etc. Take a typical tubroprop FO with say 2 or 3 thousand hours,full ATPL etc..., wheres the next career move? The likes of Easy are a complete no go now. Hence I suppose why so many people I know in a similar situation have headed for the Middle East. Its the only way open at the moment for the experienced FO looking to progress without having to pay for TR, line training, reduced salary and so on.

[pilotsince99]

This problem I believe can only be solved when the regulators become involved.

But nowadays we might wonder which side the regulators are on. The CAA approving the latest EASA FTL scheme was a huge blow after all the evidence how flawed it was, was given.

You wonder sometimes to which agenda they work.

[i_like_tea]

There are a lot of experienced FOs who are joining, but are contracted through Parc to start with.. not ideal, but there is a way in.

[Wingswinger]

A few few people getting richer and richer, and the rest sharing what's left. Accept it.

er, no. It's not acceptable. Capitalism has to work for all who wish to take part in it or it is doomed. I won't catalogue the full monty of financial disasters and scams over the last 15-20 years but just say that even those of us who believed in and trusted the "system" to generate the investment returns which would see us secure in our retirement have had the scales removed from our eyes.

[wind check]

Put a bomb in the bloody CTC cadet school

[Poose]

I was a thinking more of an 'old school' commando raid on their flightline...

[pudoc]

A crash will happen due to inexperienced pilots being promoted to captain very quickly, or just inexperienced FOs full stop.

Maybe then it will change. Maybe.

From a SLF point of view, it was all about safety and customer service years ago. Now it's all about money and seeing how quickly you can shove 200 cattle..oh I mean passengers into the plane. And then once in the cruise the pilot comes out to empty his bladder for the passengers to see he hasn't even started shaving yet. And IMO, it all started and got out of hand with low cost airlines.

Yes new pilots need to fly, but what about experienced FOs. FOs aren't just a useless person to fill a seat and satisfy criteria. Having a good, experienced FO is just as important as having a good captain and cabin crew. Too much of one thing (inexperienced FOs in this case) is always bad, having a bit of everything (experienced and inexperienced CC, captains and FOs) is good.

Thankfully at the moment this trend is relatively new and most airlines do have very good and experienced captains and FOs. But I fear low cost airlines are slacking on experienced FOs.

I feel for OP.

[Robert G Mugabe]

From a SLF point of view, it was all about safety and customer service years ago. Now it's all about money and seeing how quickly you can shove 200 cattle..oh I mean passengers into the plane. And then once in the cruise the pilot comes out to empty his bladder for the passengers to see he hasn't even started shaving yet.

Slightly insulting. Granted we have young pilots but although some are less confident than others on the whole they are a good bunch.

One of easyJets strengths is the quality of its training. I appreciate middle management, local management and the AMB's obsession with FLEXICREW and CADETS has created a poisonous relationship . The working environment on the line is generally good however . My belief is that on the whole the pilots flying the line are protected by rigorous ( some might say anal ) SOP's.

Indeed we have to file ASR's for the most mundane occurrences.

Life is not fair and there is no requirement for experienced FO's as we have many experienced FO's. We are not expanding and promotions will slow to a trickle in the next few years.

One might even argue that the LCC model does not apply to easyjet. EasyJet is closer to a cost effective legacy airline these days.

crash will happen due to inexperienced pilots being promoted to captain very quickly, or just inexperienced FOs full stop.

Rubbish. A crash will happen with a combination of events not the above in isolation.

[favete linguis]

A pilot with an ego? Whatever next? An ego to match the size of training debt

[flyer19832007]

What are the requirements for SFO's these days at Easy? 1500hrs and an ATPL?

Might be a while until you see one of those floating around.

Actually come to think of it, how long have EZY been taking Flexi crews? 4-5 years? Maybe some due soon then....

[PT6A]

Spicejetter, you sound rather bitter....... Passed over for selection?


Ps. Where did you get those talking slippers from?