The Thomas Cook Group has announced a narrow body fleet replacement with Airbus A320 family aircraft (320s and 321s). These will replace existing airframes and are not intended for expansion. The replacement aircraft are destined for all four group airlines and Thomas Cook UK might not be the first to get them - it will depend on lease expiries and aircraft could well be shared between the group airlines short-term.

In any event no significant expansion is envisaged and the UK fleet is planned to remain at around 40 to 45 aircraft in the summer season. If i recall correctly we had 42 in 2008, 44 in 2009, 43 in 2010 and 41 are planned for 2011.

This can change in the coming weeks as January is the peak booking period for summer holidays and the tour operator may request additional capacity from the airline at reasonably short notice.

I would not be at all surprised if bookings are good then an extra 1 or 2 aircraft may be needed which makes a holding pool of pilots essential as they will need to train people quickly to fill seats by May 1st.

Nice one Kestral Stu - cheers!

VFE.

Don't hold your breath too much guys. This from the Chief Pilots newsletter published today.

"The establishment plan for 2011 currently shows that we have a surplus of captains and total number of pilots against the
operational needs for next summer."

There is a proposal for an "enhanced voluntary severance" package for high earning Captains. The take up of this will determine whether there will be any recruitment for next year.

Thanks nightmale, has anyone asked him the question why the job ad went live and why the applications page opened only weeks before this announcement? on what basis and who deemed that there would be a need to recruit?

I was led to beleive that traditionally it is holidays booked during January that give an indication of that summer's operational needs. :confused:

Isn't it a prudent piece of management by covering their bases (pardon the pun) by seeing how the Jan/Feb package holiday sales go?

It appears to be a bit of forward planning opposed to the normal fire-fighting that normally goes on from mid March onwards.

When I first read the newsletter it sent the alarm bells ringing seeing words like 'surplus' and 'severancy.'

However, further reading of the letter actually discusses how this enhanced voluntary severance is hoped to be seen as very attractive to the higher earning Pilots who wish to retire or go to pastures new. Funny old thing that final salary pensions are currently being questioned through EU law, the retirement bulge is imminently going to take effect and there are a small number of opportunities out there for people to 'go to pastures new.'

A cynical person would say this is no more than sound management from TCX in getting the expensive ones out and bringing cheaper Pilots in at the bottom. I personally believe this is very healthy all round as it offers senior guys a possible golden hand shake, some commands and as a result of this, recruitment.

The newsletter does discuss how the establishment will be confirmed soon, which was scrutinised just prior to the permenant offers being handed out in October, so surely cen't have changed much if the fleet is staying the same?? There is the mention of command upgrades and recruitment depending of uptake of EVS. One would guess there will be some interest and that things will be changing over the next month as mentioned earlier. I personally don't see the latest development as a write off for recruitment....

sounds like a reasonable analysis Frozenpilot, however doens't the law require a 'consultation period' even for a relatively generous voluntary redundancy scheme and then I'm pretty sure that you cannot recruit for a further 6 months after the redundancies. That means probably a minimum of 9 months from the start of a redundancy process before any new people can start, so although long term prospects may be ok, I'm not holding my breath for this year.

I don't think the law, as you describe it, impinges on voluntary schemes. The clue is in 'voluntary'; no posts are being disestablished, nothing is being forced.

I'm no employment lawyer so I don't know. But if the voluntary scheme is 'redundancy' rather than early retiremnent or just people leaving then I beleive the statutory requirements stay in place.
Anyway, I would find it remarkable if they recruit people at the same time as letting others go, especially as alot of the senior people leaving are probably the trainers!

My thinking is that this is a cost saving measure more than a concern over surplus. Not sure whether there is a difference in legalities between redundancy and severancy, but the impression I got was to let senior guys who have had enough or want to snapple their final salary pension while it is secure can go with extra incentive. I understand such schemes are very beneficial to the Airline and repay themselves very quickly.

It could go either way. No takers then the Airline either carries it surplus for the summer (or takes other measures), or there are a good number of takers, any surplus wiped out and the possibility of recruitment, especially if tour ops ask for more capacity. TCX do seem to have a concern over rated, experienced Pilots so they may not be hasty in their actions as we are currently in a very dynamic period in Aviation, changing weekly.

Frozenpilot, please could you elaborate on what you mean by "TCX do seem to have a concern over rated, experienced Pilots ".

Thanks

Well towards the back end of the season permenant contracts have been offered from next year to this summers contractors. This is not because of a desperate need for Pilots, but when I was in the bar in Glasgow the chief Pilot said they were looking at the establishment and what effect the mass recruitment from the Middle East, BA's recruitment and other Airlines ie Virging, Monarch etc. The nature of their business is to be flexible with regards to the fluctuating requirements of the charter market. This means they may need to get Pilots up to speed quickly and the potential drying up of rated, experinced Pilots may make this difficult. Also, previous newletters have discussed dusting off the Boeing type rating course off and possible command opportunities.

This all leant towards a bit more forward planning so the Airline are not struggling to crew Aircraft next year. It is just my hunch reading the latest newsletter that the Airline is trying to reduce its wage bill and this could be a very good time for a senior Pilot to take a golden handshake (depending on whats offered).

Things are changing all the time and undoubtedly will, so who knows what will haapen..............

Yes, yesterday night. :ok:

same in here, for a future holding pool. Interviews in about three to four weeks,

Looked generic to me.

Hi everyone,

May I know the general profile of the ones who got an email?

Thanks,

Lila

For the guys who have been contacted, are you guys rated on their types?

Ah, I see your profiles say A320 family! Any boeing drivers been called?

3600 TT
1400 Bus
2000 MD

hope that helps

Anyone Know About The Selection Process They May Follow?
Thanks

i am A320 type rated with hours on type and i havent been contacted yet.

Anyone know if they still sending emails in the next days?