BA Pilots Ponder BMI Proposal
 

BA are threatening to make BMI a stand alone operation if BA's pilots do not accept a host of productivity measures, plus giving up their Holiday Pay claim.

Captain Stephen Riley the Director of Flight Operations is using a carrot and stick approach. A promise of bonuses if they behave or it will be Open Skies at Heathrow. In his communication to BA's Flight Crew he stresses how it is only their extravagant pay that makes BA's shorthaul operation unprofitable. Or that is how it seems.

But with the Olympics looming, does Willy Walsh have enough leverage to push this through? Are BA's pilots going to roll over and take this whilst their peers at Iberia are currently engaged in industrial action over the creation of Iberia Express?

Err. Since IAG are buying bmi not BA, what's the issue? bmi is not currently going to be absorbed. Most suspect it might be in the future, but no-one really knows.

It's great to feel so welcomed into the IAG family by fellow pilots...

- yoo ain't seen nothing yet! Wait until you are spat on and sworn at.:mad:. You might want to try working in Spain while you are at it too.....................

By whom???

Mainline Captains, Basil, the one I witnessed was from a crew bus on one of 'our' crew (LGW 1993).

Wow. Nearly 20 years ago. Hmmm

Maybe think about Leopards and spots? Who knows how the BMIs will be treated?

I'd have a guess the leopards retired about 10 years ago. Still, I know how the Dan Air gang like to get all nostalgic about how badly they were treated.

The problem is that the BMI takeover is the catalyst for the opportunistic Willie Walsh to have a crack at his loyal Flight Crew footsoldiers. What a betrayal!!

Now BMI pilots will forever be blamed for inviting this holocaust, simply because they joined the wrong airline and had to be saved by BA/IAG. BALPA achieved a huge victory after spending over 6 years fighting for holiday pay to be based on "overrall earnings", Walsh is now going to snatch it away. What a cheek!!

Of the 100s of posts on the Balpa forum I have read re the BA / BMI merger not a single one has blamed BMI pilots.
Yes, there is concern about how the merger will be managed , and how the lists will be integrated; but not 1 BA pilot has - so far - written with anything other than concern for the plight of the BMI guys.

There will be no spitting! FFS

a difficult one, damned if you do and damned if you dont. Personally I would leave BMI (BA Express?) as a stand alone company, with BA s track record of running airlines outside of mother BA it wont be long before IAG managers are back to the table with a different attitude. The management are preying on fear to force through something that will plaque mainline for years. Let them try "express" they wont succeed and then the power struggle will be very different.

Count N, I sincerely hope that I never get the "opportunity" to sit next to you.

That has to be some of the biggest nonsense I've ever read on this site.

I think the count is not a pilot. They wrote a lot during the cabin crew strike. Enough said?

At the risk of being contentious, is there any reason why BA pilots would want bmi to be integrated? Freetown, Almaty and Tehran (plus Beirut, Damascus, Amman, Yerevan and Baku whilst we're at it) are not exactly prime roster bidding turf and I'd have thought most BA pilots would be quite happy if bmi continued to exist to serve routes which they really couldn't get excited about. Based on the last 10 years, it's also not exactly as though bmi pilots are getting commands way faster than BA guys - probably the opposite.

Yes, it temporarily staves off the risk of bmi being used for a reverse takeover of BA mainline flying.

One list or 2 companies under the same umbrella being played out against eachother.

Although I do think a lot of it is complete spin we really do not have much choice other than accept current proposals.

One united bigger company can only be good for all of us. Sure, some people might be disadvantaged but thus it'll ever be.

Having been 6yrs in the company I'm still very much at the bottom of my aircrafts SFO status list and on a way inferior pension. That's the way the cookie crumbles. If we do not show unity and always look envious at what someone else has the race to the bottom will continue at a way faster pace than currently.
Why not strife and actually improve the situation together?

Jam today can go hand in hand with Jam tomorrow. Pick the battles and be prepared to give in order to recieve...

Like when BMI Mainline welcomed BMI Regional to LHR ?

Where do the BMI guys fit into all of this? If there is a BA Express, they are all made redundant and re-employed new cheap contracts (they must have legacy costs/pay scales of their own)... If integrated, they join on the new BA B-scale PP1-34 back dated to 1st March, based on years service at BMI. Commands are kept, but everyone is on bottom of the MSL?

Lastly, aren't the LGW pilots capped at year 10, and yet SH there remains unprofitable? (could be wrong, but led to believe).

I would have thought so. BA/IAG have said that if the integration goes ahead, then the career opportunities for BA pilots will be significant; so if it doesn't, then one can imagine where the recruitment/expansion will take place:- in the so called "standalone" entity that was bmi.
The slots that bmi would bring to the operation would have a significant effect on promotion prospects, etc. Consider 1 A319's daily operations between LHR & EDI, for instance: 5x takeoffs + 5x landings into LHR (5 slot pairs). 1 early crew, 1 late crew : 2x Capts & 2x F/Os = 4 pilots. Convert those slots for a longhaul operation with 5x Capts & 5x F/Os outbound to somewhere & the same number returning.=20 pilots (& that's without a 'heavy' crew which would increase that number still further). And that is just the effect from 1 aircraft.

Black Pudding: SPOT ON...!!!