British Airways Direct Entry Pilot

[steview082]

Thanks for those that replied to my questions on the previous page. Out of interest, where is the line drawn geographically between 2 and 3 pilot trips? East coast and Middle East is obvious, as is further afield but what about India? Texas/MSY? Florida? SEA/PDX?

I’d be interested to see some sample roster patterns from the bottom of the 787 seniority list if anybody is willing to share privately.

[glidehigh]

Originally Posted by steview082

Thanks for those that replied to my questions on the previous page. Out of interest, where is the line drawn geographically between 2 and 3 pilot trips? East coast and Middle East is obvious, as is further afield but what about India? Texas/MSY? Florida? SEA/PDX?

I’d be interested to see some sample roster patterns from the bottom of the 787 seniority list if anybody is willing to share privately.

The furthest 2 crew trip is Chicago and the northern islands in the Caribbean going west. Going east, dubai is the furthest 2 crew. Everything beyond Chicago (Denver, Texas, florida, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland) are all 3 crew barring the odd exception. India is all 3 crew. Africa, ABV LOS and ACC are 2 crew. NBO and everything else south is 3 crew.

[737 Jockey]

Has anyone used these to prepare for the capacity and coordination tests on DEP assessment day one? Any good? Thanks.

https://pilotaptitudetest.com/british-airways/

[bda321]

Originally Posted by Alrosa

Minded to agree . The demographic of the BA pilot population has and is changing and with that, less appetite for “that’s the way we’ve always done it”.

Equally I don’t think a perfect system exists - I’ve experienced BA seniority and no seniority, along with rotating seniority or rotating priority being used for leave and bidding .
.. some people might consider an outdated seniority system. Horses for courses.

When did JSS come in? Did those currently sitting at the top of the FO lists doing MRU Monday to Friday "do their time" at the bottom of JSS? Was bidline "easier" on those at the bottom?

[bda321]

Originally Posted by 737 Jockey

Has anyone used these to prepare for the capacity and coordination tests on DEP assessment day one? Any good? Thanks.

https://pilotaptitudetest.com/british-airways/

That fuel gauge rings a bell. I used LPJ around a year ago. The handling part of the test is very easy.

[wiggy]

Originally Posted by bda321

When did JSS come in? Did those currently sitting at the top of the FO lists doing MRU Monday to Friday "do their time" at the bottom of JSS? Was bidline "easier" on those at the bottom?

In answer to your first question Spring/early summer of 2018 rings a bit of a bell, I’m sure someone will correct me if wrong.

[RexBanner]

I thought it was slightly later, Wiggy. I escaped down to Gatwick at the beginning of Jan 2019 (straight into the bear pit as it turned out a year later) most specifically to avoid the implementation of JSS plus a couple of other factors. I never bid under JSS at LHR before that as far as I can recall although I stand to be corrected.

[White Van Driver]

Originally Posted by RexBanner

I thought it was slightly later, Wiggy. I escaped down to Gatwick at the beginning of Jan 2019 (straight into the bear pit as it turned out a year later) most specifically to avoid the implementation of JSS plus a couple of other factors. I never bid under JSS at LHR before that as far as I can recall although I stand to be corrected.

JSS came in January 2019.
I read bda321's post as rhetorical but maybe I'm wrong!
The senior LH co-pilots now were never junior under jss. The work distribution under Bidline of old was that even the best rosters had an undesirable trip, and/or a weekend working on them. Even with the inhibitors now, the very senior don't have to do any of that, which then means those further down the list are picking up that slack.
The other issue is that the blindlines were much less efficient rosters meaning for those doing mainly the highly fatiguing or undesirable trips, would do less of them. JSS is an efficency maximiser which sees us squeezing all those horrible trips onto the rosters of the junior pilots with exacting efficiency.

25% of BA pilots joined post-JSS so have never even lived under Bidline and with recruitment going as it is that will increase pretty rapidly.

The only way i can see to really tackle this is reducing caps. However this needs more pilots which costs more and regardless they are hiring as fast as they can already anyway.

[GS-Alpha]

It is true that many currently senior long haul SFOs were never junior under JSS, but there are plenty of junior long haul captains who were recently senior SFOs under JSS, and also senior and junior under bidline. I personally think more blame lies with EASA FTLs. The old UK FTLs were far superior at staving off fatigue.

In my opinion, the junior long haul JSS problem could be solved very easily by inserting a rule that you can’t do more than three trips in a row with just two days off in between, unless you choose to waive that restriction.

[wiggy]

Rex/White Van Driver…thanks for the correction…I left not long after it was introduced, maybe JSS made that period of time feel longer than it really was.

ATB

[TimboSlice]

Hey all, apologies if this has been asked but struggling to find anything about it.
I'm joining BA in July through NQPP on the LHR SH fleet and trying to budget as I need to relocate. I've been told my base salary but have a very limited idea of anyhting else on top of that.
If anyone could provide any info I would appreciate it. Thanks.

[White Van Driver]

Originally Posted by TimboSlice

Hey all, apologies if this has been asked but struggling to find anything about it.
I'm joining BA in July through NQPP on the LHR SH fleet and trying to budget as I need to relocate. I've been told my base salary but have a very limited idea of anyhting else on top of that.
If anyone could provide any info I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Search my previous posts and I've detailed it. Couple of little increases since though - so £19/flying hour, £5/hr time away from base allowance (per diems - HMRC taxes the majority portion though). If you work on a busy year of 800hrs flying and 2000hrs TAFB you won't be too far out.
Also dont forget to remove 6% salary for pension contributions.

[halbeir]

Originally Posted by White Van Driver

Search my previous posts and I've detailed it. Couple of little increases since though - so £19/flying hour, £5/hr time away from base allowance (per diems - HMRC taxes the majority portion though). If you work on a busy year of 800hrs flying and 2000hrs TAFB you won't be too far out.
Also dont forget to remove 6% salary for pension contributions.

Is time away from base calculated only when at a layover destination and off-duty, or during duty time too? At my previous operator it was a fixed allowance of £65 per night, tax free.

[White Van Driver]

Originally Posted by halbeir

Is time away from base calculated only when at a layover destination and off-duty, or during duty time too? At my previous operator it was a fixed allowance of £65 per night, tax free.

no it's calculated from report time to finish of duty after the whole trip. So for a daytrip thats report to choks+30min.
For a layover its first report to last chocks+30min

The amount HMRC allows as tax free depends on the destination and how long you spend there. Daytrips are all taxable.

[massiveheed]

Time away from base is from report to end of duty on the last day of that duty. So if I did a Venice day trip I’d get around 7 hours TAFB. A four day euro tour would get me around 75 hours .

[A320LGW]

The BA pilot body is too fractured.

LHR mainline, LGW euroflier, LHR short haul, LHR long haul, PP24, PP34 .. before we get into the various pension arrangements. Whatever about BA, they're a business out to make as much money as they can, I can understand them. It's BALPA who are to be blamed for allowing this all to happen, IMHO of course. No other union worth their salt would have allowed it.

The problem with this fractured pilot body is that it now appears to be nigh on impossible to get everyone on the same page, behind one single aim when it comes to pay, because x% of the body have no skin in the game when it comes to improving another cohort's pay, or they see it as potentially occurring at their expense (and understandably so).

[steview082]

Having just finished reading all 94 pages, many thanks for the helpful contributions from employees as well as those that have been through the selection process. Some very useful information in there.

Just one more question from me, have successful candidates that applied through the 787 DEP pathway all been offered 787 positions? The role description states that 777 might be offered instead, I’m wondering if this is happening more often than not?

[bda321]

Originally Posted by steview082

Just one more question from me, have successful candidates that applied through the 787 DEP pathway all been offered 787 positions? The role description states that 777 might be offered instead, I’m wondering if this is happening more often than not?

I'd say if you've specifically applied to the B787 then that is what they'll offer. Generic long haul has been nearly all to the B777 with very few B787.

[dynamicq]

Any rumours on when Euroflyer reopens their FO intake to LGW? Seems like they wanted to hire through the summer (their words), but then suddenly the position disappeared a few months ago and it all went a bit quite.

[bda321]

Originally Posted by dynamicq

Any rumours on when Euroflyer reopens their FO intake to LGW? Seems like they wanted to hire through the summer (their words), but then suddenly the position disappeared a few months ago and it all went a bit quite.

I know someone who assessed in Dec and is still in the EF hold pool, told to expect Q1 2026. They are waiving the 1 year hold pool limit.