Life in BMIBaby
 

Are there any BMIBaby pilots out there that can shed some light on as to how good or bad it is to work for this low cost company? Is the base in Birmingham going to be good?

I too would be interested in this perspective from current BMIBaby pilots. Is the pilot group completely separate from British Midlands International or can the BMIBaby pilots bid A330s eventually?

Also, how many sectors do you fly on a "typical" day?

Cheers

here goes.....
definately no right to bid for mainline

unbelievably bad rostering. now quite a few flights rostered to max fdp with no buffer, or only 5 mins. Add to this unrealistic block times and you soon realise discretion is regularly expected to be used.

management very much teflon shoulders, new crewing and ops for baby in the new year and they are pinning all their hopes on it solving the problems.:{

6 sector days appear quite often. mostly 4 sectors. 'earlies' start at 6 or 615 and finish around 4.30
:ugh:

always lates to earlies around days off, so 2 days off effectively 1.5 days off. If you finish after midnight into a day off you get nothing unless it infringes a legal day off.
8 days off a month and only 20 days leave plus public holidays in lieu.:*

am trying desperatetly to think of a good point...
the crews are great:ok:

bhx may start off ok but will no doubt end up treated as a dual base with ema, so expect the usual messing about, taxying etc.
oh and roster stability is rubbish. some months it has may as well be a blank sheet. in fact mine is this month as it's 75% standby !

Thanks Killbill
 

Any other Bmibaby jockey's out there who can comment?

Kill Bill has got it spot on.

Agree with all above. Crews are great bunch but very despondent
many leaving and more looking. I think about 10% are leaving at the moment. The only thing to go to mainline is our profit.

Mangement is of the school playground bullying style and the "shoot first then not even bother to find out truth later" model.

Ageing, unreliable aircraft with older ones coming. Can't read my
original roster as there are so many changes.

bmi baby Rostering have recently won the "Booker" prize in the Fiction category. Crew welfare is way down list of priorities and management seem to take pleasure in letting you know.

The one good thing is if you are too cheap to buy a standby ticket you can turn up at the airport turf out the capt and fly yourself on holiday then letting the rostered crew fly home. Neat way round the jump seat policy.

A bit surprising that BMIBaby management would allow the attrition to occur with Easy, Ryanair, Jet2/Channex, Thomsonfly, BA and others hiring at the moment. Are all new employees required to pay a prorated training bond if they leave within a specified time? That may be the reason management is not so worried - they have you by the ball$...

You mention junky aircraft. Are we talking really aged 737-300s/500s? Are they at least EFIS equipped? I have seen 737-300s with just FMS and no EFIS.

Lastly, would would be the starting pay for newhire FOs - take home per month?

Cheers

mad dog

There is no life in bmibaby. It is in fact quite awful.

Everyone has made some sort of sacrifice to progress their flying career - taking up a position with this muppet show is a bridge too far. Don't do it, hold out for something else. For those of us that are in, a day does not go by where we dig another foot along the tunnel to freedoom.

Working to CAP371 is one thing, 'forced' discretion is another.

Thanks
 

Sounds surprising to be honest! I been offered a position with BMIBaby but am toying leaving my current employer for the outfit because the money is good. But better the devil you know sometimes and I am quite happy where I am. Just thought I would get a feel for the company trying to make my mind up!!!

I have found it difficult to decide so your comments however false or true are welcome. Thanks.

If people are leaving for Easy, Ryanair, etc., then that is a good indication that you can do BETTER elsewhere.... Follow the rats off the sinking ship.

One last question - where are the pilot bases for BMIBaby? I know Cardiff and EMA and I think BHM. Any others?

If you are not 737 rated you will effectively
have to take out a loan of 15k for the conversion course. I believe this is made up of 3k to hand over before joining and the rest is £200/month out of net take home pay until the rest of it is paid off.

A lot of people are leaving/looking to leave at the moment, mostly to thomsonfly I understand.

As a F/O with the £200 a month taken off u can expect to take home around £2600 - £2800/month - works out about 45 - 48k gross. Captains get about 75-80k including their allowances.

The rostering is a bit of joke at the moment, for me personally it hasnt been too bad but I think the captains get more of raw deal in this department. One case I heard recently was 8 changes for the same duty in the space of 2 days!

As a capt i am working flat out, 80's to mid 90's flying hours per 28 days.
Lots of roster disruption, min rest, max FDP's, flying into discretion is all part of working for baby.
The pay is OK but not the best and you don't have any time to enjoy it.
There are other companies that pay better, treat you better and give you a much better life.
I can not see things improving in the near future. With all the crews leaving and the new BHX base opening yet again we will be under crewed!!!!!!

See what you mean Mad Dog.. Think you made the right decision to stay where you are.

Ykes, not really in the mood for that type of disruption. Seems my post was well worth it in the end. I just had this nagging gut feeling something is a miss.

Thanks guys for the posts interesting insight into the dark world of bmibaby.

What are the senior bases? What are the most probable bases for newhire FOs? How difficult would it be to bid BHX?

I'm an FO with Baby and can honestly say that I personally have not suffered any of the roster disruption that has been highlighted here. I've only done 90 hours in a 28 day period once and that was when I was line training, which was exactly what I needed at that stage. Since then I've probably averaged about 60 hours per month. Last month was 48 and that was with no leave. I think we must be over crewed with FOs as I hardly ever get called on standby either. As for 6 sector days, I only seem to average 1 per roster.

Its not the same for the Captains though; every one I've flown with seems to suffer a lot of roster changes and always seem to get called on Standbys.

It's not perfect but for me its not been as bad as the experiences of the previous posters, the money is good, the crews are great and the route structure gives a nice variety of flying.

Are new pilots mainly sourced from outside BMI or do a fair percentage of new Baby FOs come from BMI, if any? Can a BMI pilot bid or request employment at Baby? Is that likely?

What percentage of the original EMA crews at BMI continued with Baby vs. stayed at BMI?

Lastly, do you think the Fokkers will eventually move to Baby? Weren't they originally involved in the start-up phase?

Is recruitment at the moment for Birmingham only??