Openskies pilots to crew LCY A318 operation
 

When Openskies is merged with L'avion there will be an excess of pilots. Since the planned expansion has been cancelled rumour has it they are planned to crew the new LCY JFK service on the A318.

Any truth in this?

No

:rolleyes:

No. The list of pilots who will fly the 318 has just been published as part of the annual process. They are almost all senior A320 pilots from mainline.

I feel really sorry for the Open Lies pilots who were duped into working for this sad waste of money outfit.....it's a shame that it has come to this....

Good luck guys

Sadly the crews for Openskies were all warned about the tenuous nature of the work during the run up to the BA/BALPA spat.

The genuine concerns for pilots of most of the BA line pilots were drowned out by a minority of doom sayers preaching that it was about time BA pilots got what was coming to them. The main target of the pilots venom was the irresponsible management who felt they were in a position to waste vast amounts of money setting up a rival to the mainline.

Bad news for anyone losing a job but all of the LCY jobs have, indeed, now been filled from the mainline.

Good luck to all.

Bluepilot.

Nice try. Shame this has all been sorted out internally for some months now! :E

When is the A318 service expected to begin? Has the terrible economy (and resulting Finance-related job loss in London) not impacted the timetable?

Ah my mate tandem :E This is a rumour i heard from an Openskies pilot, after all this is a rumour network nes pas?

My question has been answered, (thanks overstress) there is no truth in this rumour.

Opensky F/O told me 3 punters on his last trip :\

bluepilot: a pleasure, all BA pilots have access to our bid results (a transparent system where everyone sees who bid for, and got what seat/aircraft)

The 318 operation was always forecast to be very senior and that's what has happened, BALPA did a great job in negotiating the conditions.

I saw an Open Skies crew in JFK recently , I happened to know one of them, on asked 'how's it going' he started to tell me about the load factor, I interrupted him and said no, I meant how are you doing. Not that they're sensitive about these things at all then... :rolleyes:

Ah my mate bluepilot.

Openskies pilots are an endangered species. I am subsidising them heavily. (But they will have to stand on their own two feet soon - Why do you think the managers are returnint to LHR?)

Nice to see they are being fed even more BS than me for a change! :E

Very interesting since I would have thought that it would have been the reverse. I would have suspected that the senior guys on the Airbus fleet are on that fleet to stay away from longhaul? Especially when one is flying east, since they will be flying during the night and will then have to contend with LCY at the other end.

I take it that some incentives were offered to attract those who are at the top end of the seniority list?

Not really, that's not how it works. The same deal is offered to everyone. There were a certain number of places, and they are filled in seniority order. Perhaps the mix of trips was just right? Each individual would have had his reasons for bidding, or not, as the case may be.

Edited to add - not all trips by 318 pilots will be on the 318 from LCY. The balance of the month's work will be at LHR or LGW on the 320. You can guess at the payscale given that it has gone very senior...

Also, BA has 'backers' for the route - even in these impoverished times.

Pity they didn't get a few backers before wasting millions on OpenLies....

I only mentioned 'incentives' since I read in a earlier post that BALPA had been involved in 'negotiating the conditions'. The only perk to doing a this trip, would have to be more days off around such a trip, when compared to a European tour? I would have thought the hassle of getting to and from LCY, along with the potentially interesting LCY approach after one has been up all night, would turn many away!

I suspect it will be skippers only landings at LCY? However if an F/O can land at LCY, I would be surprised if F/Os with less experience would be allowed to bid for such a trip.

318 LCY is a LHS landing only, from an FO's 5.5 degree approach :eek:

Good luck!

The approach into LCY is the easy part.........It's the landing that will get you. After having flown in there for a few years..... I would NOT want to do it in an A318. :eek:

RJ.

Have about 11 years experience of lcy and have also flown long haul. Would not fancy landing a kite in lcy after a throught the night atlantic. Good luck lads!!!

Those are exactly my sentiments, which is why I am amazed that the crews for this operation will be so senior. Perhaps they might change their bidding preference after they have experienced the curse of Mr Tate and Mr Lyle after being up all night crossing the pond! :}

LCY-NYC would have been ok a few years ago and may be ok in a few years from now.

It will be interesting to see how this LCY operations do/last/start ?

Not really. Doesnt take a rocket scientist to see that it will all end in tears.

The Bean Counters, Market Analysts and very expensive Management Consultants are all getting fat fees for directing airlines to a market segment that is vastly over-estimated at best, and highly transient at worst.

LCY is already rapidly losing the very qualities that made it a comparative pleasure to fly from, and becoming as much of a pain as LHR. Add all the hassle that comes with flying to the USA to the already creaking infrastructure there, and pax will soon start deserting LCY too.

I give it 1 year max!

In the evening rush hour it is arguably more of a pain than LHR is!

Ray - the forum has long memories, we'll see what happens

Geezer - as you seem unable to guess why senior chaps/esses are bidding for the LCY operation, perhaps the symbol £ or $ will help your guesswork :rolleyes:

It's only senior in the LHS. The FO's are relatively junior as those senior ones who really wanted LH could have easily got 777/747 slots. There'll be a minimum of 1 year A319/320/321 experience before being allowed on the A318LCY. If you're a current BA Airbus pilot you only have a 1 year (I think from memory) freeze on the LCY operation. So, I reckon, many of the senior SH Captains reckon they can try LH for a year via the A318 then return to SH if it's not for them. FEWDAL's I think the phrase is.