FlyBe to acquire BA Connect (Crew thread - no spotters)
 

I understand that this is being announced to the crews arriving at work as I type. More news when it eventally gets put on the intranet.

Assuming that it will be a TUPE trannsfer, but does this cover the FS pension? There is plan in place to fix this but will Flybe take it on? Obviously, we will all try and put this to the back of our minds as we fly around serving the BACON product today.

Shame for one or two good managers who are likely to loose their positions. One bit of good news though, no more DE and BE, golden parachutes deployed and back into the mothership or early retirement with share options exercised.

Well done BA, a perfectly viable regional airline destroyed in four years.
Very convenient vheicle for using to remove BAR from the equation.

I can imagine the jobs in the 100-job region would be from BA Connect's head offices in Manchester and on the Isle of Man, potentially also flybe would have to decide whether they want to maintain ground handling inhouse, or whether they'll move everything to a handling agent. On the other hand, I think most flight deck and cabin crew would be maintained to service flybe's aggressive expansion programme. Nice to see that there will now be a focused & expansive regional operator, though it will be a shame to see the BA livery disappear from the regions, and potentially some of the benefits of flying BA Connect like Executive Club benefits which is a major selling point for the airline.

There are around 300 jobs in MAN and the IOM. And we can say goodbye to them by this time next year. This will have a direct impact on the IOM and will cause immense disruption to a lot of people.

And it's a shame the rest of the world found out before we got into work!!

skiddy

Disgraceful act of BA!
 

And I expected nothing less from BA, an inept and arrogant company that fully deserves to go to the wall. And one day soon, probably will, though through death by a thousand cuts, I suspect.

Good luck to the BA Connect people, who tried hard, and were never given a chance.

Quote from FlyBe web site "Flybe plans to accelerate its current fleet renewal programme and will phase out all of the existing BA Connect fleet as soon as possible." So they get all the routes and all the crews and don't have to keep the planes. Another stunning BA Connect / BACX deal.

Are GB who run BA Connect Services out of Manchester affected by this?

Hello Biddedout,

whats a TUPE transfer?

Cheers,

FB

Transfer Of Undertakings, Protection of Employment.

Try Googling it.

This announcement was as predictable as the sun rising tomorrow morning. Congratulatins must (not) go to Buffoon Airways for managing the destruction of what was, only 5 years ago, the major airlines in UK domestic operations namely BRAL/manx and Brymon to which the new owners could hardly manage to play 4th fiddle. The BA Connect venture wasn't necessary in the first place and was a litany of lies, charades and gross mismanagement during its short life. The greatest fool of them all, Evans, - well, I don't know how he will dare to show his face outside the confines of Didsbury.

Those who have stuck with Connect - good luck for the future but I fear you have all been living with heads firmly buried in the sand - the writing was on the wall many years ago. Walsh eradicated Aer Lingus's domestic system and it was almost a cert that he would do the same with BA - and he has.

Looks as though the RJ will live to fight another day but only because the dullards at Waterworld finally realised that a high yield operation out of LCY was feasible and did compliment their Londoncentric view of the universe.

All in all a sad day for the ex employees of Manx, BRAL and Brymon - but it was all so predictable.:{

With the greatest of respect, perhaps a study of the shipping and rail industries might be informative? Consolidation and embuggeration of operating staff have been a feature of the transport industry for what? 200 years?

i love the way WW calls it a disposal.that man needs a slap

Morning!

Sounds like interesting times ahead for BACon and FlyBE crews, with hopefully a level of security for both. I do feel for the BACon crews, sounds like you really have been p!ssed about over the last while.

I can’t quite get why FlyBE would go for such a deal, other than the business sector, but it reads like good business sense for BA. 15% of £600M is a nice profit for not a lot of work!

Also, how will this effect the floatation of FlyBE? Will it still happen?

Good luck folks, hope it works out.

S22

I understand that this is a hot and sensitive subject to a lot of you, and that this effects many people, and their families....
However, is this not a good thing, compared to the last 5(?) years or so, that has happend?? BA has been cutting, promising, selling and lying (?) for many years now. They have obviously never had a plan, not a good one anyway, for running regional operations. Looking back it is quite clear that this would happen sooner or later...only sad thing is that it did not happen earlier...
Why? Is it not better to work for a company that is dedicated to the business that they are involved in? BA never was.... Working under the BA parashute you never knew if you would have a job the coming year, under FlyBe it seems, with aviation "standard" anyway, like a stable and secure alternative..right?
I know that there are huge issues in FlyBe when it comes to, for example, the relationship between the company and the union (the staff). Im sure there are many other things that could be improved, but then again show me a company where this is not true...
I think that the people being affected by this could bring in a lot of experience in to Flybe and help building a better company, improving the t&c's etc.

At the end of the day it's money that rules aviation, and any business for that matter. Maybe its easy for an "outsider" to give the advice to look at the good/positive things in this matter...but at the end of the day, being negative will only make things worse for you as an individual, right?

Good luck to all of you!

Standing by for incoming!

/CP

If BA ever needed reminding that having all your eggs in one basket was a dangerous policy then surely this summer's chaos that costed BA £100 million is surely that lesson. It is interesting to note that whilst LHR, LGW & STN all suffered, most regional airports were able to 'manage' the disruption without the mass flight cancellations.

BAs withdrawl from the regions seems to have missed this point.

Good luck to everyone at BAcon!

BA is not a charity
 

This, first & foremost, is the most important point. BA, or any other company for that matter, is not a charity. := The sale of BACon to FlyBe should be seen by the employees as a good thing (in the medium-long term) as you'll at least be working for a company that is committed to regional ops. BA will, one day, be an exclusive business/first class operator of point to point long-haul flights.

This really did come out of no where. Did not see it coming. BA did not give Connect a chance its not even a year old yet and there offloading it to BE. Mind you there going to keep a stake in the enlarged airline so they may well make more money that way than owning connect outright.

Ex sou crews
 

And how about all those faithful BAcon crews chucked out of the base at sou just last week. Re-locating their lives in EDI or MAN or BHX, none exactly close by. Hindsight being a wonderous thing what will they do now? be offered jobs back at sou? Put their lives on hold until they know whats going on?????????????????
Mare to say the least.

BA expects BAConnect to be sold by Christmas.

BAConnect currently have 10 RJ100s. However, there isn't enough work for all 10 aircraft on the LCY routes so some aircraft will be returned to the lessors early whilst the remaining RJ100s will be based in EDI. British Airways will then set up a new subsidiary to operate the LCY routes.

Thank you

FB

Good News for some and bad fo others
 

What a suprise to a lot of people, how many BA Connect staff will they keep on must be a big question.

Is it the Dash Fleet and the Emb fleet that will go? if so that is a large amount to sell of in one large chunk

I do agree with the takeover that Bristol will not be part of Flybes plan as Exeter is just down the road and Exeter has a much better WX record although with the more modern aircraft it has not been as bad Wx wise problems at Bristol.

It will take a least six months or more before the true picure will come out but good luck to all concerned.

There will be some competion loss in some areas no doubt but what will be next on the card.

On a crewing issue this would be good news for the Dash crews as an upgrade to a Dash 400 will be cost effective for the company without having to train new recruits.

I understand there has been some crew loses as always at this time of year with the younger ones wanting to fly a 737 or A320.

So can anyone enlighten us about FlyBe terms and conditions compared with our own? I suspect they fall short of ours.

Does anyone really believe this will be a TUPE transfer? Why would FlyBe want to create a second tier of terms and conditions superior to those being "enjoyed" by their own pilots. After all, aren't FlyBe also suffering an exodus of pilots?

Now, I must go and update my CV.

Why the purchase of BACON?
 

Flybe employees have been told the reason for the purchase is threefold:

1. The addition of BA Connect routes offers and opportunity to deploy newly arriving aircraft on existing mature routes, de-risking the business
2. Additional crew will relieve recruitment pressure
3. Additional route network will allow Flybe to develop into difficult to penetrate markets in Europe, including Paris Frankfurt and Milan. This is being done to protect the company.

The sale of the company will be deferred to allow management to focus on the integration.

From a personal point of view, I am pleased that the company appears to have the opportunity to strengthen its position and I hope that this will protect the jobs and future of all crew involved in Flybe and BA Connect.

FB

Hi Flyingbug

you obviously work for FlyBe, so how about giving us some info on terms and conditions? I also understand there is no scheduling agreement in FlyBe, so I can look forward to being dicked around for the rest of my life. Still it must save on printer toner cartridges by issuing blank sheets of paper for rosters!

I'm afraid I can't take a positive view on this sale from my own perspective. As someone who currently enjoys flying a 146, I don't relish the prospect of flying the "fuel efficient and environmentally friendly" Dash 8.

Under TUPE flybe have to honour your existing T&Cs. This information will be useful to you.

Tens of thousands of workers in all industries will tell you that TUPE isn't worth the paper its written on. It can be dodged and got around by the accountants and lawyers to suit the taking-over company. BACon's copper-bottomed T&Cs won't be acceptable to flyBe, IMHO - far too expensive and restricting. Why do you think there has been so much apparent disontent aired by flyBe crews? Nope, looks as if the BA gravy train has hit the buffers for many, alas. Oh, and a Q400 v 146 - no contest - get used to not having to wind up the clockworks every morning.

I dont work for either BAconnect or FlyBE.
I just wanna say good luck to all crew at BACON! It cant be the nicest way to find out, from what i hear you guys were not told about this till u watched BBC this morning.
I hope everything pans out for all the crew, and as much as BA is a compeditor at MAN for my airline its always a shame to see the flag carrier disappear at MAN.
Good luck to you all. :rolleyes:

Hi SV,

yes I do, although I'm not management, just a line pilot.
The T&Cs have not been great this summer, to be frank we have had a disrupted summer at times; however the good news is that BALPA big Jim met Jim French on Monday with senior managers and apparently a much more attractive deal is on its way to us - ballot papers and details are being sent to members this week. Don't have the new proposal details yet....................



FB

Inverness base
 

What impact will this have for Inverness crews and ground staff?

:confused:

INV will become Flybe


Its a good move for BA and also for Flybe, its not so great for the BA Connect staff especially those in the HQ most of whom will lose their jobs!:ouch:

I can´t believe this has all happened and WW had not even thought about the impact on BA staff canteen in T2 at BHX! :) :) :) :)

Do you reckon Bacon cabin crew will be safe? Hope so! Very very underhand how we heard about this through text messages off each other! Very bad! :mad:

The only issue I see with BA Connect's cabin crews is the strength of your unions. I know a couple of ex-BACON people who are over at baby now, who said that the unions are so tough at BACON that they would never accept cabin tidies between flights, essentially a staple of the no-frills model. I see the jobs being safe, as flybe are still going to need the crews for all of these flights, as well as for their existing expansion programme, but there will have to be a fundemental mentality change for the crews to adopt to no-frills flying.

I see flybe moving their operations at BHX over to T2 in order to utilise the expanded facilities that have been put in there. T2 fits in with flybe's model of the convenient regional airport, whilst T1 can be something of a schlepp being full of shops, something better suited to charter and longhaul passengers. The press release on BA's website indicates that the regional handling division is not included in the purchase, so what will happen to that I wonder? Also whether flybe might consider aligning their frequent flyer programme with Executive Club, a way of maintaining happy BA customers.

BA have really sold BACON at the right time. With expansion programmes from other low-cost airlines in the regions, the Jungle Jets simply couldn't compete. flybe gives BA a 15% stake in a profitable no-frills regional airline and offloading a continually loss making one - businesswise, it makes the most sense.

Is David Evans still involved with Ba Connect.If so this was all predicted 4 years ago when they pulled out of their commitment to buying 318´s .If that man makes a penny out of any sellout of Ba in the regions he should be:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: and then:mad: :mad: .If it´s north of the M4 BA are not interested why did´nt they pull out properly years ago it´s like death with 1000 blunt spoons:ugh:

I'm very sorry, but not suprised, to hear this news. I hope FlyBe can get it's plans on the table as soon as poss to help those whose futures are looking uncertain.
Although now a BA mainline pilot, I was MAN based for 11 years. Firstly on BAC 1-11's and after BAR was created I flew regional 737-200's to the very destinations now to be flown by FlyBe. I left for the "golden runways" because I could see, even in the 1990's that BA's heart wasn't in basing crews and aircraft North of Watford. At the time I predicted that the end game was longhaul premium traffic at LHR and every decision they have taken has confirmed that.

To my colleagues in LGW I say - give yourselves 5 years max.

To my friends in BAcon I sincerely hope this works out for you.........

One good thing no more Evans and his cronies!! Well unless you are an RJ100 pilot, seriously though how do you guys feel about still being in an operation that he is presumably going to be apart of ? Think he and his management have proved that they cant manage their way out of a paper bag and even having the lucrative LCY routes doesent mean success if the management dont have a a clue how to run it.

Will this have any effect on Loganair?

My best wishes to all the BACON crews, good luck! :)

Loganair and other franchise operators not affected.

Message to you guys who are affected by this
Hope you all have job on Christmas eve andhope all works out next year
I know it`s not nice finding out second hand about a take over as it happened to me when some of my clients rang me ask if what was going to happen
and I had not a clue of what was to happen later in the day

G-I-B

Horrible way to find out, though as said, a lot knew it was going to happen one day or another.

Couple of good friends of mine in IOM got into work this morning to find out their being laid off...and I'm sure there were many many more also in that position.

Thanks BA. :mad:

Good luck to all the crews and staff having to find new jobs / relocate etc. All the best.

It's a shame to see BA disappear from all but LHR (maybe LGW) after so long. As a BRS based pilot, I fear for the future of the BA BRS people as, judging by the press releases, there's a very noticable lack of commitment to the base & all other FlyBe routes from BRS have been dropped in recent months.

And the first I heard of the sell-out was when one of the passengers told me on my flight this morning. Great!