As someone who works for the orange compition I would like to express my sadness to those who may loose their positions over the current situation at Flybe. We all wish to do well but not at the cost of others employment.

Like ROSCO328, but from Spotty M, I'm saddened like many of my colleges to see what is happening at FlyBE and wish the best for those loosing their jobs. The people I've worked with who are ex FlyBE/JEA are a good bunch.

binder
 

didn't know you sold 787s!

Beaver; I'm sure RJ can speak for themself, but perhaps they didn't know about any other trades losses apart from F/D? It doesn't mean they dismiss you, as you seem to think.

Deeply saddened to hear about the Flybe redundancies. Hope you all get through this, guys and gals.

Beaver Man

And the name of this forum is... what?

Nobody is denigrating the cost to engineers and other folk too, but this is a pilot forum and it is only natural that most of us will be considering the implications for pilots.

And with regard to that massive chip on your shoulder, in my 7 years at flybe I never considered engineers to be "underlings". There were a few grumpy ones at BHX, but the majority were good guys and mates.

Here's hoping that flybe can recover. JF is a canny operator and has got the company out of very tight spots before - there were times in the late '90s/early 2000s that the company was hours away from shutting down. Give the man a chance. He is not the kind of man to lay staff off unless he absolutely has to.

"Give the man a chance"

His already said his off Into the sunset with his wedge! I really hope those left can pull something out of the bag, and keep a thoroughly decent bunch of guys and girls in jobs. Best wishes to all those who got the short straw, I hope other opportunities are forthcoming in the near future.

This really is tragic for the many people being made redundant who had little or no capability to influence the situation. Even more tragic is that the UK division remains in the hands of a man whom, although broadly affable, is incapable of making decisions and establishing what needs to be done. It is no surprise that the rot really set in when the decent management team were shipped off to the Russian front to run the Finland operation. APD hasn't helped, but a set of poor management decisions and inaction in the UK operation is the underlying root cause of the problems.

Didn't they put in a huge order for Embaer 175s recently?

I haven't seen much of these aircraft. Have they been delivered to Flybe- or is this another part of the same problem?

Atom, try and keep up & don't ask silly inane questions
when people's livelihoods are on the line.
However I shall spell it out for you as it may
help take my mind of destitute'ism* for a while...

The order for 175 jets was made some time ago,
deliveries commenced just over 1 yr ago, there
are plenty around, EDI, ABZ, INV all have
one apiece, Brum and Manc have even more,
so you have not been looking very hard...
The next 3 deliveries have been deferred.

Albert Hall, spot on my friend, can't agree with you
more, although I would not go as far as "broadly affable".
Before even 1 hard working Pilot/Engineer/Cabin Crew
loose their job that :mad: should be out on his ear
with NO golden handshake, a swift kick in the tailpipe
will suffice. Quite frankly it's scandalous he keeps his job.


* for the benefit of the proon spelling police, that was intentional
poor English, grammar and diction.... and that... :ugh:

Well I can tell you the effect of this announcement from first hand experience.

Mrs ETOPS called in on Friday and given her 90 days notice - this only just over a year since exactly the same thing at her previous airline.

Gutted doesn't even come close..............

That seems terribly quick. Is Mrs ETOPs flight deck?
Is there not a consultation period to undergo and what are BALPA doing to help?

ETOPS

Sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed she gets picked up quickly. Is she LHS/RHS? I gather the excess is on the left, but the push is to cut the last ones in?

From friends in the company it seems the training is very good and no doubt anyone moving on would be an asset to any airline. Good luck.

First of all, thank you very much to those who have offered their kinds words in light of the current situation.

From my part: as you can imagine it's horrible, and a lot of us are looking over our shoulders and wondering what we can actually do. The uncertainty is the particularly nasty part of this entire thing. Management are progressively going around bases - especially those bases who didn't hear that they were at risk from the staff newsletter - but actually from the press instead.

It's just a terribly sad situation whichever way you look at it. Even for those who do survive the cull of staff, the employer/employee relationship will be ruined and I suspect we'll see a vast number moving on. To where is the question - and with a useless Type Rating and nobody interested in Turboprop pilots, I can't really say...

My thoughts are with everyone involved in this at the moment.

I live equidistant from Exeter and Bristol airports so I have a choice of carriers to almost anywhere in Europe.

I recently tried to book a FlyBe business ticket from Exeter to Belfast to get me there at a decent time in the morning and return in the evening. Not a hope. The Orange squad at Bristol got the outbound flight however they only go to International which is a 30 quid taxi ride into town. I came back from City on Flymaybe via Manchester to Exeter and both flights were half empty. I had forgotten how cramped the Dash-8 is and could not fit a laptop bag in the overhead bin.

The return flight was two sectors but cost four times the price of the outbound flight. There was a modicum of comfort in that the taxi journey was 20 quid cheaper in Belfast. Their business model is seriously flawed and the market will show no mercy.

It may or may not be that their business model has proven unsound. But let us distinguish here: the guys (and gals) paying for this by losing their work are not the ones responsible for any business decision. The blame for the business model, schedules, pricing and the like goes straight to the company brass; responsibility for unbearable taxes and other millstones the company needs to carry around is the authorities. In contrast, none of the blame goes to those working on the line and keeping the aircraft moving.

Please accept my sympathy as well - it is not a nice situation to be thrown into, and I do hope that You will soon find new employment. I do assume that some aircraft will be sold - possibly following them and applying with the buying company would be an option?

I have every sympathy for most of the people who work for this outfit, and who are the victims of bad management decisions, as indeed are the customers. I used to fly quite a lot with Flybe, thankfully recently have managed to avoid doing so. Nearly every experience was bad, due to either cancelled or delayed flights, bad service on board, and all that at high fares due to the monopoly position that Flybe has on many routes.

I hope there is a solution, failing which I can only see Flybe losing business and heading downhill.

When an airline initiates the requirement for a 90 day consultation period, make no mistake, they fully intend on implementing redundancy. Little can sway them from this. I hope in this case something can. Having suffered 3 redundancies in 17 years I feel greatly for those at flybe affected. It really is a brutal industry.

B&B

The best bet for the few unions involved is to make their participation in the turnround plan 100% dependent on a change of management in the UK division. If they do not, the turnround plan will become irrelevant as there will be no airline left to implement it.

Can we not turn this into a pssing contest from passengers about where they got a better flight from A to B cheaper ? F*ck off to the professional passengers rumour network...

Sorry to hear of the situation in FlyBe , my mate finally managed to get in after years trying last year ! Disaster !- I was laid off from Astraeus when they went bust and it's a hard market out there regardless of what TR/hours you have.

I'd suggest get straight on the phone to PARC about their constantly advertised, ANA wings requirement for Dash8 Capts.

fade to grey....

Absolutely right. This shouldn't be a pissing contest between pax when people are about to face redundancy. My previous post regarding my own personal experience was purely meant as an example of where Flybe has gone wrong.

Sadly, this is the responsibility of the management but as per usual it's the poor folks on the line that will suffer the consequences of some misguided decision making at the top.

A mate of mine also got a job with them last year after years of waiting....sincere sympathies to all those affected. Hopefully this mess will be soon sorted out.