According to ppjn.com, Emirates will open a new base in Chinese owned airport Schwerin Parchim in northern Germany. Heavy expansion into US & European markets planned.
If this is true, there will be much more pilots leaving...
The future is looking so interesting!

I think it's highly unlikely that T&C's will improve until flights are being cancelled due lack of crew and from what I hear its not just about the money, far from it, so any change to address the real issues will be neither quick or cheap to implement.

Norwegian have taken large numbers of ex FR crew and will likely to continue to do so this year, it gets interesting when thinking through how or if they introduce the airbus fleet on order, where will they go and who will fly them, clearly any movement from the NG fleet to the bus will mean a need to back fill the NG jobs, a present there is no plan to phase out the NG, the bus is filling a gap until the MAX turns up in a couple of years time.

Whether Norwegian can poach experienced staff from easyJet in the same way they have from FR i think is unlikely, but there are a lot of people in the sandpit who want out with airbus ratings

I don't think they will poach many/if any from Easy. As Alexander has stated the terms and conditions at Easy are very very reasonable and it's like comparing apples with Lobsters in comparison to those that are at FR. They might get a few who fancy a Spanish or Canaries base but that's it as far as I can see it. The carrot just isn't big enough.

However I think they will take a lot of guys from Wizz. And I think they will have enough between them and a few guys coming back from the sandpit to get by.

The terms and conditions at Wizz are.....well let's face it absolutely appalling and in a similar way to Ryanair that is where the influx will come from.

However just like Ryanair they have very competent crews. So I think Norwegian will be only too happy to take them into the world of side sticks and all sorts of different control laws ;)

@ Terrain Noted: April fools...

Pitot, you show your misconceptions by assuming all RYR pilots are contractors and tax fiddlers. Relatively few captains are contractors, and few of the contractor pilots (of any rank) try to fiddle anything - it seems many have been misinformed by professional accountants and authorities about where they should pay taxes and social contributions, so they may have paid them in the wrong country. But paid they have. I think an apology is owed by you to those individuals.

Well! Aluminum shuffler, I don't think it would be so difficult to put all employees onto a legal employment contract, pay all the appropriate taxes and social insurance costs that are required legally in Europe. Then we could save all the confusion.

Then have a secret ballot of all employees as to whether they would like union representation. That way Ryanair would conform not only with the laws of all countries in Europe but also the spirit of the law.

Perhaps the headline of "300 pilots have left Ryanair this year" should be more realistically be "3,000 pilots did not leave Ryanair this year".

Being realistic, I very much doubt that Ryanair will have any trouble filling the gaps.

My last company lost getting on for 10% of their pilots on some years during the 19 years that I was there despite pretty good conditions (which I am pleased to report that I am enjoying in retirement).

We never had any trouble filling the spaces.

JW411....... I think that depends, Airlines run tight margins as you know, if they lost 10% spread evenly over 1 year then maybe they would cover all flights. 10% in 1 month would be a major problem as aircraft would have to sit on the ground. 10% every year, well it depends who was leaving but if training department Pilots were leaving that fast, then that also would be a significant problem.

The other problem is resignation is contagious....

I don't think it would be so difficult to put all employees onto a legal employment contract, pay all he appropriate taxes and social insurance costs that are required legally in Europe. Then we could save all the confusion.

I think that would be exceedingly difficult if it remains a voluntary option for RYR. Surely you can't imagine they would vote to increase their cost base by a massive amount. It'll never happen until the so-called authorities insist upon it.

You're right

I know exactly what you are saying and I do not disagree. I was heavily into the union side of my last company and I can tell you that pilots will always move on (unless you are happy to sit in the right seat of a BA airplane for 20 years or so to hopefully pick up a juicy carrot at the end). I successfully negotiated a good final salary pension scheme, loss of license insurance scheme and God knows what else but still we lost pilots.

The fact of the matter is that a measureable proportion of your pilot workforce will always have itchy feet. After all, everyone knows that the grass is ALWAYS greener on the the other side.

Most of us have great difficulty in realising that we have actually "ARRIVED".

I ended up after a long career in aviation in a job that I realised was probably the best kept secret in aviation. I was only flying 350-400 hours per annum but, most of it was at night. My mates who were in the bucket and spade brigade (such as Britannia) were flying 800 hours per annum and half of that was at night and their pension scheme was worse than mine.

I never ceased to be amazed at the progression of new pilots. At interview, they would cheerfully kill to get the job. During training (and I usually did the simulator and the aircraft bit) they were as keen as mustard and usually did pretty well. Most of my students turned out well but there was always a percentage that I just KNEW from Day One were going to let me down.

The complainants would usually start after the second recurrent session in the simulator (a year later) and their vision of their perceived future in aviation and their aspirations would have changed somewhat.

And these were the days when the company paid for their type rating. So, as long as pilots are prepared to pay for their type ratings, why should Ryanair lose any sleep?

Incidentally, years ago I was working for a Part 121 operator in the USA. Our ultimate boss was a redneck who had never hired anyone unless they already had a type rating. He had never paid for a type rating course. We persuaded him to run a couple of courses. It was my pleasure to check out one of our British F/Os as a captain in the presence of the FAA examiner (the aircraft was a DC-10).

Two weeks later, the little bugger did a runner and left me and a lot of my friends with a huge amount of egg on our faces having got his qualification.

Ryanair will have no trouble filling their seats for the foreseeable future.

Aluminium Shuffler. You do not have to be an apologist for a company that relies so heavily on ducking its responsibility to the wider society of where it operates to enhance its bottom line. Ignorance of tax laws is no excuse regardless of where you might get advice from. Take the time to read and understand what you are signing for at the bottom of your income tax form. Too many Ryanair pilots have revelled in the fact that they have avoided paying tax to think it is not a commonly held view. It is only in the last few years when European wide tax authorities have been taken a closer look that the fear of being caught has started to change mindsets.

JW411- I respect your experience and view, but your conclusion is dependent on the one situation that none of us want to consider. The standard of cadets at Ryanair as I have discussed on other threads does not approach the standards you were trained to at hamble or Oxford or the Air Force 30+ years ago. Now there is almost no failure, pay and pass. Any serious incident will drive regulators toward the FAA conclusions. Changing things for LCC's. I just wish the change would happen without the incident.

It is true that Ryanair can fill the seats with 250 hour F/O's and 3000 hour captains but I'm sorry, I was a wet behind the ears F/O with 3000 hours. I accept that with the military that is different.

Polax, re. post 131 I couldn't agree more. Most of the contractors I ever asked wanted to be employees, but didn't get the choice. They weren't happy about their tax arrangements either, but if they didn't toe the line, they'd be removed from the roster. That's the real benefit of contractors for an "employer" - there are no dismissals or grievance procedures. It's a case of do as you're told or lose your income.

Pitotheat, I am not defending the company - many of their actions are indefensible. They are reaping what they have sown, and I hope many more find good alternatives. I am merely responding to the arrogant, anti-RYR pilot rants of some misguided EZY fools.

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I was at Ryanair for four years. I complied fully with the law and payed my taxes.

Don't paint everyone with the same brush pitotheat. Some of us go to work, pay our taxes just like everyone else regardless of weather we are self employed contractors or not.

Thankfully I'm no longer a self employed contractor. But it matters not I've always payed my due taxes. End of story.

Well done you but the fact remains that a lot of Ryan pilots do not pay any tax. I know that because I know a few of them and they have told me. They live in fear of the tax authorities catching up with them, although in the mean time is Kchink!

Polax, rant all you wish at RYR; I have no issue with that. I do take issue with you ranting about their pilots, who are no different to EZY's or any other company's. Most of them are unhappy about a multitude of issues, but for one reason or another are not in a position to change things. The is no power in the workforce because of how the company plays multinational law when it suits them and Irish law when it doesn't, and because this game makes compulsory union recognition impossible. Those pilots that can take jobs elsewhere are doing so, just as I voted with my feet when I decided that EZY was a bad place to be. Don't blame the RYR pilots for what is outside of their control - you don't see them bad mouthing EZY pilots, do you?

Calypso, there are a handful that may be evading tax, not a large number. There are always a few bad apples, and don't pretend that other airlines with contractors don't have the same issue. I knew a few in my time at EZY, just as I met a couple at RYR.

777Scotty, I sometimes wish this forum had a "like" button.

The mass resignations are a double edged sword for Ts and Cs. While they may concentrate RYR mgmt's mind, and that doesn't seem to be the case yet, the availability of so many fairly well trained and experienced senior FOs and Captains of vary levels of experience doesn't do much to increase competition amongst other companies recruitment teams. I'm not sure that this really will be the start of a T&C upswing that so many of us wish for. I hope I'm very wrong.