BA?
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 639
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
For new entrants, it's still bloody brilliant. Do you pay for your TR, get offered flexi-contracts etc.?
The world of FO T&Cs has moved massively over the last 5 years and we're only waking up to the fact that this is not a temporary shift in T&Cs.
Give every airline has not shortage of suitable (by their definition!) candidates, it's still a fabulous offer but not for everyone as you're just a number at a massive organisation in the SE.
The world of FO T&Cs has moved massively over the last 5 years and we're only waking up to the fact that this is not a temporary shift in T&Cs.
Give every airline has not shortage of suitable (by their definition!) candidates, it's still a fabulous offer but not for everyone as you're just a number at a massive organisation in the SE.
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: 30 West
Posts: 58
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Artie there are people leaving BA for emirates. That is a fact. I want to be in the UK. Not everyone does. I can understand why.
That's because it's the way BA want it. They have been granting a great deal of Short Term Unpaid Leave. (the key word being 'unpaid'!) in order to save money. should they wish to increase the number of available pilots, one assumes they will simply cancel this arrangement.
Up to (and including) 2016, out of a workforce of 3700-3800, only twenty six pilots will hit 65. In BA, virtually nobody retires voluntarily before then. Please feel free to draw your own conclusions!...(text cut)... Bear in mind also that the average age of BA's most senior 1000 captains is currently less than 52.
Any more news or rumours regarding recruitment?
listen to yourselves....aviation is like politics (although a pilot would never say it)....its all talk of right & wrong. Yes it is, but you all miss out 2 key words...FOR & ME.
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Samsonite Avenue
Posts: 1,538
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Really? Why leave British Airways for Emirates. To attain a quicker long haul command?
I would have thought it you were over a certain age (say 35?), joining on a BARP pension living in the UK, then BA is not actually that good a gig. Coupled with the corporate culture and unique working relationship on board, I should imagine that opportunities in the M.E and the Far East would tempt somebody with few family ties.
I know that I will be telling my children to look East & West and try to stay out of the U.K. (Unless they get into banking or politics)
I know that I will be telling my children to look East & West and try to stay out of the U.K. (Unless they get into banking or politics)
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Doctor's waiting room
Posts: 769
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The security and certainty that BA provides could quite well be a very attractive feature for someone who is more mature. Uprooting a family to move abroad is a costly experience and you then have the gamble of seeing if the whole family settle into where you have moved. If the other half is gainfully employed along with having the kids settled in school, then you would need fairly compelling reasons (i.e. unemployment) for moving long distance. BA would win hands down here versus EK.
If you are single with no dependants then (imo) EK is the better option - providing you can see yourself being happy in Dubai. The cost of living in Dubai versus UK has the potential to be lower in Dubai, if you are single. That along with the higher take home salary, means there is potential to have a little more financial flexibility for putting money to one side, than compared to being a single F/O at BA.
If you are single with no dependants then (imo) EK is the better option - providing you can see yourself being happy in Dubai. The cost of living in Dubai versus UK has the potential to be lower in Dubai, if you are single. That along with the higher take home salary, means there is potential to have a little more financial flexibility for putting money to one side, than compared to being a single F/O at BA.
The problem with joining at a later age in BA is that the demographics work against you. There are approx. 100 pilots due to reach 65 in the next 5 years, followed by around 400 pilots in the 5 years after that.
That is out of about 3500 pilots.
Assuming that you are looking for a long haul command, I'm guessing that it would take a new joiner around 20 years to achieve it.
That together with the upcoming changes in pension LTA's, I'm guessing an awful lot of people are sitting there crunching the numbers.
That is out of about 3500 pilots.
Assuming that you are looking for a long haul command, I'm guessing that it would take a new joiner around 20 years to achieve it.
That together with the upcoming changes in pension LTA's, I'm guessing an awful lot of people are sitting there crunching the numbers.
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Europe
Age: 40
Posts: 106
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Emma,
Just on the cost of living... I'm in Dubai now and have lived in the UK for about 5 years.
The difference is not big at all. It may seem like you'll get a lot of money for working here and you do, but it goes out at a similar rate. The going price for a small packaging of blueberries is around 4 pounds, just to give a (weird?) example.
Some things are cheaper, but all in all, in year 1 I am struggling to set money aside for saving etc.
Not meaning to hijack the topic, just trying to make it more complete :-)
Just on the cost of living... I'm in Dubai now and have lived in the UK for about 5 years.
The difference is not big at all. It may seem like you'll get a lot of money for working here and you do, but it goes out at a similar rate. The going price for a small packaging of blueberries is around 4 pounds, just to give a (weird?) example.
Some things are cheaper, but all in all, in year 1 I am struggling to set money aside for saving etc.
Not meaning to hijack the topic, just trying to make it more complete :-)
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Doctor's waiting room
Posts: 769
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Whilst not wanting to divert the discussion from the primary topic which is BA Recruitment, at a rough guess it is around 5-7 years for a command. Plenty of information on the Middle East forum.
As for joining BA during your more mature years, you may be into your fifties or even sixties (if you joined in your forties) until you saw a long haul command but that is perhaps a small price to pay when comparing that to moving a family abroad with all the potential pitfalls that are associated with such a move. All you need is one of the kids to not feel settled and you either commute and send the family home or you all go back home and hope that there will be a plan C.
There seemed to be a degree of bewilderment in some of the responses questioning the logic of why one would leave BA for EK but if you are young and single, then the pros for moving have the potential to outweigh the list of reasons why you shouldn't move, providing you can see yourself being happy abroad.
It can be tough to save anything significant whilst you settle in but thereafter, it is possible to bank a comfortable amount over the space of a year at EK.
As for joining BA during your more mature years, you may be into your fifties or even sixties (if you joined in your forties) until you saw a long haul command but that is perhaps a small price to pay when comparing that to moving a family abroad with all the potential pitfalls that are associated with such a move. All you need is one of the kids to not feel settled and you either commute and send the family home or you all go back home and hope that there will be a plan C.
There seemed to be a degree of bewilderment in some of the responses questioning the logic of why one would leave BA for EK but if you are young and single, then the pros for moving have the potential to outweigh the list of reasons why you shouldn't move, providing you can see yourself being happy abroad.
It can be tough to save anything significant whilst you settle in but thereafter, it is possible to bank a comfortable amount over the space of a year at EK.
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: 30 West
Posts: 58
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
In fairness to BA the argument about low experience levels is probably flawed as they take so few each year. BA take perhaps 130 cadets a year, thats less then 4% of their entire pilot body, hardly creating an experience issue. BAs experience levels are probably amongst the highest in the world. Anyway BA took some experienced BMI pilots and were within their right to decide how many they wanted. The inexperienced cadet argument may only become valid if an airline is recruiting en masse. Other LCC airlines in Europe recruit hundreds of cadets and they will argue its not an issue while those LCC cadets fly with inexperienced Captains that does not happen at BA.
Obviously it can be disheartening for Pilots gaining experience in other airlines to see cadet schemes in an already saturated market but its BA's gig and they can rightly do as they wish, those pilots just have to sit tight and wait and see what happens when BA requires larger numbers. Anyone holding hostility to BA in that regard most hold hostility for every airline operating today.
Obviously it can be disheartening for Pilots gaining experience in other airlines to see cadet schemes in an already saturated market but its BA's gig and they can rightly do as they wish, those pilots just have to sit tight and wait and see what happens when BA requires larger numbers. Anyone holding hostility to BA in that regard most hold hostility for every airline operating today.
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: ex-DXB
Posts: 927
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
BA pilots may not have to move to the ME after all. EK could be coming to LHR.
EK make no secret that their future plans are to stop over and continue routings, linking the globe (DXB-MXP-JFK-MXP-DXB as a teaser.) One transport search on Sir Tim Clarke reveals this.
Considering EK put 10 380's in and out of LHR each day without a spare seat in the house for months now, (plus the tie up with a weak (take-over soon) QF) how long before new basings are needed to continue onto the US, (EK's declared next massive expansion area.) LUFTY and Air Canada are doing their brown-trousered best to stop EK coming in and moving on.
With £230 extra per seat for business APD.............its money for nothing that the UK government love.
With another 200 777's and another 100 A380's coming...............
EK make no secret that their future plans are to stop over and continue routings, linking the globe (DXB-MXP-JFK-MXP-DXB as a teaser.) One transport search on Sir Tim Clarke reveals this.
Considering EK put 10 380's in and out of LHR each day without a spare seat in the house for months now, (plus the tie up with a weak (take-over soon) QF) how long before new basings are needed to continue onto the US, (EK's declared next massive expansion area.) LUFTY and Air Canada are doing their brown-trousered best to stop EK coming in and moving on.
With £230 extra per seat for business APD.............its money for nothing that the UK government love.
With another 200 777's and another 100 A380's coming...............
I am incredulous. Do pilots really sit in the right seat with BA for 20 years before getting a command. I simply cannot believe that anyone would do this.
I never ever spent more than three years in the right seat during my 47 years of serious aviation.
I might well have a wardrobe full of different uniforms from failed airlines but I reckon that I probably made more money and I certainly had a lot more fun.
I never ever spent more than three years in the right seat during my 47 years of serious aviation.
I might well have a wardrobe full of different uniforms from failed airlines but I reckon that I probably made more money and I certainly had a lot more fun.