BA Direct Entry Pilot.
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 995
Likes: 103
From: Botswana
heard the same last night from an easyJet skipper who has been flying with a load who are working their notice with start dates on the A350. I’ll withhold my true feelings on that due to pprunes policy on profanity. This company just gets worse and worse.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 898
Likes: 73
From: UK
If you are frozen on type, you are frozen on type. How can you say the company is getting worse and worse when so many hundreds of long haul DEPs have been recruited onto long haul ahead of frozen internal pilots just in the last few years alone? As far as I am aware, there has been no change in policy.
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
From: Europe
If you are frozen on type, you are frozen on type. How can you say the company is getting worse and worse when so many hundreds of long haul DEPs have been recruited onto long haul ahead of frozen internal pilots just in the last few years alone? As far as I am aware, there has been no change in policy.
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 995
Likes: 103
From: Botswana
If you are frozen on type, you are frozen on type. How can you say the company is getting worse and worse when so many hundreds of long haul DEPs have been recruited onto long haul ahead of frozen internal pilots just in the last few years alone? As far as I am aware, there has been no change in policy.
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 71
Likes: 0
From: Timba Hold
The hundreds that will be unfrozen in the next few years wont get LH courses straight away once unfrozen. Why would the company 'pay' for airbus FO to do a LH type rating and then have to replace them with another FO on the airbus. They'll just type rate one new DEP onto LH. It's about money. There will be claims of training capacity etc etc but seems fairly simple maths to me. One type rating, or two?
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 898
Likes: 73
From: UK
Are we saying there are currently unfrozen FOs who meet all the current requirements for the A350, being denied moves? As for the hundreds unfreezing next year; I do not believe any current offers will be for next year’s intake, so we will have to wait a while yet before worrying about that.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 898
Likes: 73
From: UK
The hundreds that will be unfrozen in the next few years wont get LH courses straight away once unfrozen. Why would the company 'pay' for airbus FO to do a LH type rating and then have to replace them with another FO on the airbus. They'll just type rate one new DEP onto LH. It's about money. There will be claims of training capacity etc etc but seems fairly simple maths to me. One type rating, or two?
Joined: Mar 2010
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 181
Likes: 21
From: Hamburg
I am sure that this is because it isn't an open and shut case. If it was, someone would have leapt at it long before now.
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 0
Likes: 0
From: Germany
It does indeed cost money, but agreements cost money, as do salaries. Training will probably be a nightmare next year with lots of jumbos leaving and A350s arriving. Plenty of shorthaul FOs will be denied moves to long haul, but if I were a betting man, I would wager it will be because the vast majority of P350s will come from current 747 FOs.
Not sure whether there is a shorter course for 320/321 to 350 but if there is, costs alone indicate it makes sense for a shorter more productive course to be allocated?
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 898
Likes: 73
From: UK
I believe the A320 to A350 conversion is a smaller training footprint so that could indeed result in the company preferring to send people from shorthaul to the A350 as you say. I’d also say generally, the more senior 747 SFOs prefer to stick with Boeing so that too would have them preferring the 777 courses you predict. However, the surplus 747 guys will have to go somewhere and they definitely won’t be favouring short haul. I’m sure the vast majority of those released from short haul will indeed be destined for the A350 and A380, simply because the more senior 747 guys moving will have bids in for the Boeing courses. However, the less senior 747 guys (once Boeing courses are filled) will end up on A350 and A380 ahead of short haul. I think this will all happen naturally as a result of general bidding tendencies though, and will have very little to do with training costs, even though the two drivers correlate. Basically as a generalisation, the more senior who haven’t already headed to Airbus prefer to stay Boeing, which will result in those courses filling up first.
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 0
Likes: 0
From: Germany
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 351
Likes: 148
From: FL390
I’m talking about the many people ahead of me who have valid bids this year (and as Icanseeclearly and Jaffo320 have said it’s in the hundreds) and are being bypassed again by Long Haul DEP.
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 724
Likes: 24
From: UK
Yep, agree with the Ferret. I wanted LH when I joined, was A320 rated and was offered and accepted a start date for SH as “no LH places available”. The next week 4 guys from my base at ezy got offered DEP 747. Just the way it is. Get a start date, get your seniority number and after 5 years you have a lot options.
A LH DEP will be disproportionately junior for much longer than someone who does the initial freeze on SH. Whether that is a price worth paying to bypass the A320 rostering is down to personal circumstance/prior experience and, most importantly, perspective. Seniority is everything in BA. I can’t see that changing any time soon.
A LH DEP will be disproportionately junior for much longer than someone who does the initial freeze on SH. Whether that is a price worth paying to bypass the A320 rostering is down to personal circumstance/prior experience and, most importantly, perspective. Seniority is everything in BA. I can’t see that changing any time soon.
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 138
Likes: 0
From: London
Joined: Jan 2019
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
From: Calgary
Good Evening All
I've got a Day 1 Assesment coming up, in a couple of weeks. (2nd try). I’ve been reviewing with “Job Test Prep”, and was wondering if anyone who had been through Day 1 recently would be willing to share their experience or have any advice on other sources for revision material.
Thanks in advance.
I've got a Day 1 Assesment coming up, in a couple of weeks. (2nd try). I’ve been reviewing with “Job Test Prep”, and was wondering if anyone who had been through Day 1 recently would be willing to share their experience or have any advice on other sources for revision material.
Thanks in advance.