Q for you bmed guys!
 

Not sure if info is available here on pprune....
What kind of FO pay would you start on with Bmed?? Time to command?? Are there many FOs with experience to upgrade?? Understand that you are getting more 321s in the future....how many??

Any info appreciated!

/CP

Starting salary is around 39,000 with around 6,000 a year allowances on top.

In the past time to command has been quick as going from 2 to 4 aircraft doubles the requirement for captains etc. Now with 7 aircraft each new one generates a lessor increase in the number of captains required. More recently command times can be 2-3 years for people with commercial experience and longer for those with low hours. With a flying rate of only 650 hours a year it takes a while just to get the minimum hours (2000 off the top of my head).

On top of that you would have to join the queue as there are a lot of FO's ahead on the seniority list who are in the right bracket for getting a command.

I believe the plan is to go to a total of 10 aircraft in a mix of 320/321.

There have been plenty of other posts regarding lifestyle, rosters and such like at BMED. If you search for those much of the info remains true.

Hope this helps, all the best

BMED (British Mediterranean) - what's it like?
 

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can offer a glimpse of what life's like at BMED?

Specifically, for an FO with 3000 or so hours with over 1000hrs A320 and the rest all Boeing...... here are the questions:

1) How long to Command?

2) What is the basic salary?

3) How many trips a month... and how many days off at home?

4) How tiring?

Any other (relevant) info gratefully received.

If you do an advanced search with the keyword BMED and select for any date you will get 248 responses.

Many of these posts have asked the same questions and I have replied to many of them also. Most of the answers are still relevant. If you are none the wiser after that let me know and I will see if I can fill in the gaps.

1. depends on your background and colour of your socks
2.£46500 roughly
3.varies put currently 10 days a month of ( "all of course subject to commercial pressure")
4 very very

Yeah, sure you are tired but you get to fly to exciting places like Tehran and Baku!!!!

barcli

Command: I was led to believe it is seniority based and ability based. Are you suggesting favouritism?

I would appreciate a sensible estimate as of time to command if possible please.

Also, led to believe that I have to start as FO regadless of prior experience. This is nearer £41000 p.a. i believe. Is this true?

Many thanks.

If you have previous A320 command experience then it is possible to join as a direct entry captain. Otherwise you will have to join as an FO. An FO recently joined us with previous FO experience on A320 and passed his command assessment after only 12 months, will have finished his left hand seat training after 14 months.
Some have taken longer, also there is no guarantee of quick commands (whatever your previous experience) when joining any company. Probably better to think "how would the rest of my life be if I was an FO with this company until retirement", I assume you are thinking of leaving your present company because things are not very rosy?
In the past if you were ex military you could progress quite quickly, that seems to be less obvious these days and tends to be more based on seniority and more importantly ability. There are a few senior FO's who have been overlooked!
Starting salary for experienced FO is around 38 or something like that, not sure of the latest figures but I believe they are available on the BALPA website.
I am away for the weekend and back on Monday, I can discuss further then if you need to.
ATB Don

Three Vs Two
 

put it this way

British Airways - any flight over 8 1/2HRS heavy crew
Virgin Altantic - any flight over 8 1/2HRS heavy crew

Bmed - 13HRS duty - to bad...its just the two of you.....with a fuel stop just to keep you awake on the way home!!!

may be legal, but is it right!?!

THINK FIRST!!
:sad:

But BMED do not do any flight over 6.30 hours (that for the Tehran) and most flights are 6 hours or less. Admitedly the FDP can be quite long but within CAP 371.
Add to that that there are no early starts or late finishes from home base and life is not too difficult. Short haul can do similar amounts of flying during a day with numerous sectors along with very early starts and late finishes. A charter flight can be an equally long day to finish where you started!
Obviously with the latest pay deal under discussion we are extremely overworked with a dreadful lifestyle;)

'Ere Winging_it,

Here at VS, we regularly do nine and a half hours to Florida with only two crew. Only ever rostered with more if it's leagally required.

Still VVV Tiring!

Not so with the recent 3 day TASkent and ADDis trips which were outside the CAP371 but had dispensation from the CAA. Nearly everyone found them shocking:eek: Due to the local summer time change (+1 hour) these trips thankfully become legal according to the CAA. However try telling your body that:{ :zzz: :{

From what I can gather, how you view the salary depends on what your used to. If you come from any other Airbus company you will probably think its quite poor. Whereas if your moving up from a regional or turboprop you'll be quite happy.

There are lifestyle issues with both pro's and con's. I think Dons covered that one. The company is also rather flexible as far as your geographic abode. Although the company expects you to be able to report within 1.5 hours of call out they so far do not stipulate that you MUST reside within 1.5 hours of base. This could change but I think realistically they appreciate that BMed is not exactly awash with people trying to climb aboard so would rather attract the right people than have to limit themselves to a 1.5 hour catchment pool.

My opinion is that the salaries and T & C's should be significantly improved in order to retain the hard working and loyal troops that we have. We do not physically work as hard as some of the shorthaul carriers on paper. However, the nature of our flying (Africa and CIS), with many destinations being procedural non procision, whose controllers hardly speak any english, have no radar, poor weather and to top it off some very hostile terrain, means that we do infact come under much more stress than a 4 sector day being guided on to ILSs by switched on European ATC staff. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the company cheque book, otherwise I'd probably emptied the company accounts paying the guys and girls who fly to these destinations :}

BMED LIFESTYLE!!
 

BMED LIFESTLYE

Hi

I do hope this question is in the correct forum section:

Here goes:

With BMED could any BMED Pilots give an example of a typical lifestyle, such as how many days on and how many Days off do you get before your next trip.

Be quite interested in working for BMED in the future when I get the required hours.

Thank you all for your time in replying

Club World!

I have posted information about BMED a number of times in the past and if you do a search over the past 2 years it should throw up a number of threads. The majority of the information from those is still valid.
If you still have any queries after looking at those then I will be happy to answer them for you. I am away tomorrow for 4 days so will answer them when I get back, for your information I had 3 days off before the trip and will get 3 days off when I get back but it is not normally that cushy!!

Thanks Don

I will look at the search method you suggested, you have already answered my main question about days off.

Thanks again, and enjoy your trips and days off:)

Rgds
CW

As Dan C says do a search there's lots of info. Generally 1 or 2 sectors into a night stop. Then 1 or 2 sectors back to the UK and 3/4 days off sometimes more. Generally you report around midday or late evening.

Good T&C's + Good Pension (10% F/O's 15% Capts) + Lots of leave (35 + 8 BH) + 1 extra day of leave for every two years you are in the company.

Lot's of people here from both Civil and Mil backgrounds.

We are happy what we do in the corner of LHR as a BA franchise.

Check out the website http://www.flybmed.com/index.php

BMEDbus quote "Generally 1 or 2 sectors into a night stop. Then 1 or 2 sectors back to the UK and 3/4 days off " - 3 or 4 days off after one night away " possibly more" - your roster must be a great deal different to any I have seen for years::hmm:

Hi,
i'm be interested in working for BMED in the future also, so anyone can be send me his/her roster to compare with my current roster, i'll appreciate a lot, i heard as well, you'll receive your next aircraft during the summer .. intox ?? or :)
Rgrds and thks for all rpls

Riviera I was going to try and paste a dis-identified image of my May and Apr roster for you but I cant figure out how to do that. Basically last month consisted of: 3 day trip, 1 DO, 4 day trip, 2 DO, 4 day standby, 2 day avail, 4 DO, 3 day trip, 3 DO, 4 day trip.

This month is: 3 DO, 7 day trip, 3 DO, 4 day standby, 2 day avail, 1 DO, 4 day trip, 2 DO, 3 day trip, 2 DO.

There is a total of 18 sectors in the 2 months, 21 days off. I got used on 3 days of my standby so the 2 avail days turned into DO making 23. The avail days are where you have to be contactable between 08:00-09:30 and 18:00-19:00; no restriction is put on you apart from you have to be contactable by phone and any duty has to have at least 10 hours notice. Standby periods vary but mine were 10:00-20:00 and you have to be able to get to the airport within 1:30.

All the best

Tks so much Don Coyote
bst rgrds :)

I was just wondering if many of you who work for BMED live way out of the way?

Anything like 2hrs to get to LHR...?

If so, how is it?

Can it be done when you mainly fly short haul or is there ways and means around this?

PRNAV

Don't work for BMED but know a man who does.

All trips are stop-overs and usually for a few nights so 2 hours travelling is no problem.

SW

That's good news, thanx.

looking alot better than i thought.

cheers.

Only drive to Heathrow around once, maybe twice a week; as has been stated the shortest trip is 3 days.

The one where you may have problems is when on standby. You have to be able to get to the office within 1:30 of the call. You normally get more notice of a callout but I have had a few where I have had to get in as quickly as possible.

BMed
 

Hi everyone

Was just wondering if anyone else has heard from BMed with an application form or and interview?

does anyone know how there interview process works?

Cheers
:ok:

appllied about 3 weeks ago now heard nim nothing..any one else got any more info..met the requirements at application before you ask

cheers bm

Looked through the search function and I am now wondering if anyone could enlighten me as to the monthly duty hours. I was guessing people do 200-250 a month? Or more helpfully, what would be the average take-home pay for an new FO. Whilst I am posting may I also ask what the general time to command would be (if found suitable). Thanks in advance.

Are you mad? :eek:

Quite possibly, but only according to those doctor people in those hospitals! Just a guess as I had 273 duty hours last month and BMED crews only do tours. I thought 200-250 was sensible but, please, any info is all very welcome.

What kind of trip requires 7 days? Can you give me an example? What about the 3 day trips? Are the hotels nice? Thanks.

Jaarrgh

Duty hours can be between 170 to 350 a month but average around 250. You are on duty from the minute you report to Heathrow until the minute you return so it is not as bad as it sounds as time off down route counts as duty. This means that you can add anywhere between £350 to £900 to your salary in duty pay ( a proportion of which is taxed). Not exactly sure but I think the average take home of an FO is in the order of £2500 depending on how much you choose to contribute to your pension scheme.

The time to command is variable depending on your experience and whether type rated or not. Some with previous command experience have done it within 18 months, those with little experience can take up to 5 or 6 years as BMED is not the best place to hours build.

Donkey Duke

The only 7 day trip at the moment is Tbilisi which consists of 1 sector out, 5 days off down route and 1 sector home. A 3 day trip can be 1 or 2 sectors out, between 18 and 26 hours off and then 1 or 2 sectors home. The hotels are all generally Hyatt, Marriott or Hilton so there are no problems there.

All the best

Thanks for the reply Don. What about layovers in Beirut and Tehran? Are those the types where you generally order room service? Which layover do you like or dislike the most? How about Baku, Almaty, or SSH? Do you have any mates at GB and do you ever compare rosters? Both BMED and GB sound interesting. Thanks again.

Cheers Mates!

I like all the destinations (apart from Tehran), Beirut is a great place and I wish the trips there were longer. None of our destinations are exoctic holiday destinations but they all have their merits. Some people even look forward to a Tehran.

I don't know anyone at GB and rarely get chance to talk to them in the crew room.

BMED are losing money unlike most other airlines, so the other factor you have to consider is how long will they be around?

Hey Donkey

Long time no see!

Thought you must have lost interest in pprune.

You seem to have been looking for a job in Europe for a while now. What happened? Did you lose your citizenship, retire, furloughed, or just fired??

Or have you come round to our point of view that it really is safer without a couple of pax carrying 'shooters' on every flight?

Maybe you'll get to fly into LHR after all. I'm sure you'll enjoy it every bit as much as ATL!

Catch you on the airwaves!

That's true: losing money, but expansion planned. I think a deeper investigation into their financial situation and way forward is essential before you move from a more secure company - if you are!

Could anyone describe the interview/assessent process? And where is the training held - Cranebank?

JB

Things are getting better here. We hopefully have gone through the worst of it, and now we are expanding the INTL side a bunch. I fly the INTL routes a lot from ATL, and I have been noticing a lot of these airlines at MAN and LGW, so I get on here and ask questions. See ya.

BMED LIFESTYLE
 

I have been reading the previous threads on the issue of joining BMED but now I suggest you think again due to the recent bombings at the airport. The crew often stay in Beirut but now they will have to stay some where else and that have also pulled the crew out of Damascus. As you are awhere all their destinations are not the safety of places and you do not receive danger money not like they did at BA mainline when they use to stay in Baku, so I strongly recommend that you look else where. Some where where bombs are not a threat to you and your fellow crew.:\

Oh yes like London I suppose! There is as much risk anywhere at the moment.:mad:

Eh? stayed in BAKU many times with BA on the 767 never got any danger money. Suggest you check your facts matey boy! :rolleyes: