BA CityFlyer recruitment and assessment

[geekgirl]

Hi!

I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on the BA CityFlyer Assessment and Interview day.
Most posts on this seem to be very dated so any advice anyone could give me would be great.

Many thanks in advance

[N747EX]

Have you been invited?

[High Energy]

Selection process has not changed since the old data posted on pprune before.

[Capt_Sensible]

Has anyone heard anything from them yet????

[zedoscarro]

no, nothing, niente, nada

[angelorange]

PFO email today

100s of approaches into LON City, just under 6000h with 4 years of that on Multi Crew TP, also jet rated.

[Woody12]

@angelorange

Im really surprised that you got one, considering your experience!! First they reject newbies and now experienced guys. Wondering what they are looking for and how the selection is being conducted. Sofar, no PFO for me, but that can change very quick.

[Davenport]

My guess is they're after flybe rated guys.....

[maxed-out]

@Woody12

CTC!!! As usual a taster "recruitment" drive to see who bites. Then off to the CTC sausage factory for cadets and everyone’s nest is nicely feathered.

Did any of you experienced TP/Jet guys expect anything else?

And soon we'll have another FTO/ATO opening up shop in the UK selling MPL to wannabes for a wopping 100k sterling. Nice....

[Daygo]

If they do cherry pick from CTC and OAA then it really goes to show that as a wannabe the only places to go are these FTO's.

I firmly believe that we should have a system as in the US where you have to gain your 1500 hrs before you can work for an airline. The problem is the CAA wouldn't do this as it would rock the boat.

I have heard nothing from BAFC and don't expect to. I have over 2000hrs TT, live 20 mins away from the airport. 1750 hrs instrument time and 1700hrs working in the corporate aviation industry on a Citation.

So hard to move up the ladder when all you have is some kid from CTC/OAA bypassing the system. Seems experience counts for nothing these days!!!

[maxed-out]

Daygo,

You have my sympathies. But if the rules were changed then you wouldn't have had the chance to fly a Cj with 300 hours (which is what your post implies). At least the corporate division and the companies I've been contacting haven't sold their souls to CTC/OAA. Not yet anyway.

Good luck.

Ps. I'll take your Cj job. Lowish TT and couple hundred turbine.

[Daygo]

Maxed Out.

Agree with your comments. I do however think that there needs to be more emphasis on the guys with hours to be taken on by airlines.

[Daygo]

Do we know if anyone has been contacted regarding interviews?

[Trossie]

I have over 2000hrs TT, live 20 mins away from the airport. 1750 hrs instrument time and 1700hrs working in the corporate aviation industry on a Citation.

So hard to move up the ladder when all you have is some kid from CTC/OAA bypassing the system. Seems experience counts for nothing these days!!!

In any 'seniority based' airline that will all count against you.The kiddo who joined straight from flying school a year before you will be ahead of you for promotion. That will eventually make you grumpy and they won't want grumpy pilots in their airline, so they'll stick to employing the kiddos straight from the flying schools. These kiddos will be so heavily in debt that they can't afford to leave and repay the type-rating bond; and by the time their bond is finished they will be looking at how close they are to a command and that leaving will be throwing away their precious position on that seniority list. The airline will quite obviously prefer them rather than you. Those kids aren't 'bypassing the system', for seniority based airlines they are the system.

[Trossie]

... ageism or not?

Not. That 'kid' straight out of Flying School could be aged 20 or 40 and the principle would still be the same. (The 40-year-olds could actually be more attractive to the airline as they will eventually feel, once they have worked off their bonds and 'gained' in seniority, that they have more to lose if they leave.)

[no sponsor]

As a BA Franchise, and as a group company in IAG, if true, that is wholly unacceptable.

[Trossie]

Pilot recruitment in this country is conceptually fixed to prevent experienced and mature pilots from applying for jobs.

Not true. I have known several pilots aged 35+ with only piston-engined time and sometimes with many thousands of hours to get airline jobs. (One was 1,500 hrs, aged 54! AND he got a command before he retired.) The 'instant fix' flying-school-straight-into-a-jet-job isn't always the best answer. Plenty of pilots have worked their way up as flying instructors and with turbo-prop airlines. Many have got themselves jobs in airline offices, as cabin crew and as handling agent dispatchers in order to get known and noticed. And well done to all of them for their efforts. Others have done it, just give it a try and don't just sit at home complaining about 'the system'.

Agreed, there always have been some airlines that have some rather daft concepts about selecting pilots. One is that flying school graduates are the only way to go (most likely that is the way that the chief pilot got his licence?), another is to look down on certain types of experience (I can understand the 'factorised hours' concept, because long-haul hours don't build up experience at the same rate as regional turbo-prop, etc., but I have heard of one rather snooty airline looking down at someone's DC6 experience!) and I have seen some rather daft questions on application forms that can be totally irrelevant (one rather Big Airline at one stage wanted to know how many hours you took to go solo... I've known a pilot to go solo at about 80 hours, but that was on his 17th birthday and that day he soloed on four different types including a tail-dragger and a twin, so 'hours to first solo' is a rubbish question!).

When the supply is bigger than the demand then that first job will always be difficult to get, but I don't think that airline work is much different from other industries as far as that goes. When business picks up it will change...

As for being

... a BA Franchise, and ... a group company in IAG

I don't think that makes them any different from any other employer, other than that they have the 'tyranny of the seniority list'

to prevent experienced and mature pilots

from advancing at a rate relevant to their experience.

[futureTP]

Assessment days.

Hello folks,

Just wondering if anyone has heard anything recently, I've been reliably informed there are assessment days planned?

Also any info on the group ex, interview and tests would be appreciated feeling lucky!

If you prefer to pm please feel free...

Cheers

[Daygo]

I've not heard anything since I received my BP email about 5 yrs ago!

[Selcal86]

I got a pfo this morning. 1000 on an rj and 2400 tt.
Must be all the Ryanairs jumping ship that got the interviews...