British Airways Direct Entry Pilot

[topgunaviator]

Originally Posted by White Van Driver

Long haul they are optimistic. Realistic IMHO on SH. (referring to 30min from chock on to finished)

Thanks, so finish times are roughly correct, at least on SH, you never seem to get away sooner?

[SkyRocket10]

Originally Posted by topgunaviator

Thanks, so finish times are roughly correct, at least on SH, you never seem to get away sooner?

Rarely, and factor in around 45mins-1hr from chocks on to reach the car park

[topgunaviator]

Originally Posted by SkyRocket10

Rarely, and factor in around 45mins-1hr from chocks on to reach the car park

didn’t realise it would take that long. Thanks for the insight

[Truetoga]

Has recruitment finished for the A350 fleet? I heard someone said they filled all the positions and would probably not be putting guys on that fleet anymore. More likely just 777 or 320. Anyone heard anything?

[R T Jones]

Friend of mine offered a 350 course for July.

[SkyRocket10]

If they have been offered the 350, they are very likely to be the last. The final aircraft has now arrived and the fleet will be at full crewing strength soon with very little movement on/off the 350 for the next couple of years.

Originally Posted by R T Jones

Friend of mine offered a 350 course for July.

[topgunaviator]

Is living ~ 1:30hrs from LHR reasonable for short haul? Is it doable with a commute in the car?

[hunterboy]

I’d say 90 mins is doable…if you don’t mind driving.

[Claybird]

BA will decide this year what aircraft will replace the 777-200s. So the A350 is in contention and will probably need 300-400 more pilots, The 787-10 (or -9) the other candidate with a slim chance for the 777-9 (only because LHRs 3rd runway plan was scrapped and BA might opt for more capacity (at 369 or 414 seat configuration compared to the 325 seat configuration the current 777-9 order for 18+24 aircraft will have)

[Plastic787]

Originally Posted by Claybird

BA will decide this year what aircraft will replace the 777-200s. So the A350 is in contention and will probably need 300-400 more pilots, The 787-10 (or -9) the other candidate with a slim chance for the 777-9 (only because LHRs 3rd runway plan was scrapped and BA might opt for more capacity (at 369 or 414 seat configuration compared to the 325 seat configuration the current 777-9 order for 18+24 aircraft will have)

the key word here is replace. BA ordering any amount of 787s and A350s as replacement aircraft to those retirements will not generate additional vacancies but will be filled by internal transfer (no doubt some DEPs will find their way on to those fleets but not 300-400). The good news is though that recruitment is supposed to be at 200 or so a year for the foreseeable in the most part due to pilot retirements but also the final restoration of pre covid capacity.

[Busdriver01]

Originally Posted by topgunaviator

Is living ~ 1:30hrs from LHR reasonable for short haul? Is it doable with a commute in the car?

You get 2hrs to the car park for a HSB callout, so if that's a reliable 1:30 and won't regularly become 2:30 with traffic, then i'd say thats easily doable. People live much further away than that. If you're aiming for day trips it'll likely become a bit of a drag doing that commute 2x every day, but if its 3/4/5 day tours you're after, you're absolutely golden.

[SkyRocket10]

Originally Posted by Claybird

BA will decide this year what aircraft will replace the 777-200s. So the A350 is in contention and will probably need 300-400 more pilots, The 787-10 (or -9) the other candidate with a slim chance for the 777-9 (only because LHRs 3rd runway plan was scrapped and BA might opt for more capacity (at 369 or 414 seat configuration compared to the 325 seat configuration the current 777-9 order for 18+24 aircraft will have)

The decision has already been made by IAG (to the surprise of BA) not to order anymore A350s, but to go with more 787. This is directly from the airbus team who were hoping to get another sim with any potential order. The fleet will remain at 18 hulls for the foreseeable.

[Hotel_Mode]

Originally Posted by SkyRocket10

The decision has already been made by IAG (to the surprise of BA) not to order anymore A350s, but to go with more 787. This is directly from the airbus team who were hoping to get another sim with any potential order. The fleet will remain at 18 hulls for the foreseeable.

I would take any rumours with a pinch of salt. After 25 years in BA I have never known one to be 100% accurate. Indeed I remember in the days of SEP management forums the chief pilot Boeing telling a group of 30 of us that we would not be getting the A380 and the 747-8 would be the next widebody order. Within a week the A380 was ordered.

Nobody in flight ops knows what's being ordered, especially at IAG level. They may have been consulted about possibilities but they don't know. Multi billion pound deals are way too commercially sensitive.

[Plastic787]

If that turns out to be true it’s not particularly surprising, the 787-10 has better operating economics than the A350-900 on the vast majority of stage lengths that the 777-200s currently perform for BA. I’m told it’s also available at a much better price than Airbus are prepared to offer. The A350-1000 is a brilliant aircraft no doubt (except in the flare it seems!) and I’m sure BA are very happy with it for the mid-J 747 routes it was intended to act as replacement on but it’s simply too much aircraft to act as a natural replacement for the 777-200.

What would get BA creaming in their pants now (and has been communicated to us) is the prospect of mixed fleeting the 777-9 with the 787 and doing something similar with the A350 and A380. I think it’s always going to be beyond them, however.

Would be interesting to see the fate of the 777-300s in this instance given that’s going to end up another small fleet. A top up order for A350-1000s could be in the offing for that if strategically the decision was to replace them but, as you said that won’t be for a while yet.

[3Greens]

Originally Posted by Plastic787

If that turns out to be true it’s not particularly surprising, the 787-10 has better operating economics on the vast majority of routes that an A350-900 would perform for BA and doesn’t need the extra range of the latter. It’s also available at a better price than Airbus are prepared to offer. The A350-1000 is a brilliant aircraft no doubt and I’m sure BA are very happy with it but it’s too much aircraft to act as a natural replacement for the 777-200.

What would get BA creaming in their pants now (and has been communicated to us) is the prospect of mixed fleeting the 777-9 with the 787 and doing something similar with the A350 and A380. I think it’s always going to be beyond them, however.

Would be interesting to see the fate of the 777-300s in this instance given that’s going to end up another small fleet. A top up order for A350-1000s could be in the offing for that if ustrategically the decision was to replace them but, as you said that won’t be for a while yet.

BA can’t even find line training sectors for cruise only FOs so there is zero chance of a massive training programme to dual rate 350/380

[Plastic787]

I think the idea is to make the A380 pilots fly the A350 too but not vice versa so you can utilise the A380 guys and girls more when it’s quiet so it would end up a smaller training footprint than that but you are absolutely right, I don’t think it’s realistic.

[FullWings]

What would get BA creaming in their pants now (and has been communicated to us) is the prospect of mixed fleeting the 777-9 with the 787 and doing something similar with the A350 and A380. I think it’s always going to be beyond them, however.

I think that was the general idea 10-15 years ago: eventually two LH fleets, one Airbus, one Boeing utilising the common type ratings. Lots of flexibility with inherent savings. BA have four now, which I suppose is better than the 757 / 767, Tristar, 747, 747-400, Concorde and DC-10 which probably all overlapped at some point.

It is true that pretty much all of the rumours about new aircraft purchases and fleet combinations are proven incorrect at some point - I don’t think anyone posting here has access to that level of information, and even if they did, they certainly wouldn’t be passing it on.

Would be interesting to see the fate of the 777-300s in this instance given that’s going to end up another small fleet. A top up order for A350-1000s could be in the offing for that if strategically the decision was to replace them but, as you said that won’t be for a while yet.

Looking at it logically (yeah, airlines...), without any insider knowledge, it would be more sensible for BA to add the 777-9 to the 777-300 as the -200 is decommissioned - they are very much alike in terms of systems, capacity, size, etc. and type specific training would be minimal for those current on the 777. There would also be ~34 aircraft in the combined fleet which gives plenty of options, like the 787 with 37 hulls now. Combine the 350 with the 380 and you get 30 airframes. Three fleets to the current four, roughly the same size, makes sense? Probably a non-starter for that reason, and that the 777-9 seems to be slipping continually in terms of delivery dates...

[cheff92]

Good morning everyone. Are they still offering both LH AND SH option?

[GS-Alpha]

The tiniest of google searches would take you to the BA pilot jobs website, where you could perhaps find your answer?

[Big Metal Bird]

I’m not sure if it’s been written here before but does anybody commute from GLA or EDI for either SH or LH?

How do you manage commuting when you’re on reserve?

Thanks