Same boat here, have a start date in May. I’ve emailed the recruitment team to ask what’s going on. Not an ideal situation to be in.

How many of those who's been through stage 3 did sim prep beforehand?
There are a few places out there who offers xHours on a 747 for $$$

For those who's done it was it worth it or was it better not having any experience on the 747 coming in to the sim and having a greater learning curve (for those who didn't)
Is it needed or can it in someways have a negative impact on the actual sim?

There maybe some benefit but personally I would be practicing flying needles all around UK airports. This will be much more useful than spending loads on a 747 sim. They will take lack of experience on a 747 in to account but if you can’t fly a raw data SID/STAR or hold then that will be an issue. I spent a good few days sat on flight sim at my old flying school and it made a big difference on the day. Best of luck

Judging by the very high number of begging texts for P2s to pick up trips and come and fly on their days off, I don't think those in the pool have too much to worry about right now. That comes with the caveat that if offered SH, take it. Take the first offer you get. Delaying for LH could really come back to bite you in the backside at the moment.

We seem to be desperate on the A320 at LHR the moment. I received five texts asking for volunteers to cover flights at very short notice yesterday, and another five on Friday. They're offering Leave Buy Back in February, which is quite unprecedented. I shudder to think what the summer is going to be like.

Best advice from EMB,take first offer.Ten years ago hold pool drained and swimmers left floundering.
Guys and girls had to repeat application 18 months later,wasn’t pretty.

Unfortunately all recruitment (operational and non operational), except for offers already made, are being suspended for the time being.

Source for that info (or at least a hint at where it came from )?

From RN this morning

Ok thanks...I wonder how long it will take to permeate as far as the Yammersphere and/or “One”...?

Oh hang on, it’s a weekend.......

Don’t suppose you’d know whether that includes BACF as well?

So has anyone told recruitment that there is a hiring freeze ? Roles still being advertised and upcoming assessments this week yet to be canned ...

TBH I have only heard of a freeze by way of that one post upthread, nothing elsewhere that corroborates that..

Being charitable one can only guess the situation is evolving so quickly, and it’s still only Monday PM............

Then again AFAIK nobody on the line pilot side of things has been informed about the widely reported route cutting that SKY and BBC have reported this evening...(rumour has it cabin crew were told details by e-mail within minutes.)

Sounds like “ Ops normal” as far as communication between pilots and their management goes.

To be fair I did have a notification in eMaestro when I updated my roster for times for my logbook. What more could I possibly want ?

:E..........

Just gave them a call and they said they’ve not been told anything new so expect the course to remain the same date etc. If anything changes we’ll get emailed.
Apparently they’re honouring contract offers already been made according to a BALPA source. That being said if anyone hears anything to the contrary please share, still considering begging my current company to accept a notice withdrawal...

Nervous times, keep the faith and worry about it if/when it happens

If the email that I’ve seen is genuine (seen, not sent, crucial difference) and I’ve no reason at the moment to think it’s not, then anyone with a confirmed start date is as secure now as they were before Corona Virus.

And Given the the amount of uncovered trips in March for 320 FO, At this stage I can’t see why we’d stop recruitment. We’re a long way undercrewed.

Perhaps we’ve seen different emails, but as far as I’m aware there’s definitely a recruitment freeze (operational and non-operational) for the time being.

But you’re right, we certainly were massively undercrewed, who knows now with the reduction/redistribution of flights

From a CC perspective a trainer I was flying with told me that all training other than non essential training was cancelled. Recruitment and promotions were suspended.

From a flight crew perspective there has been no official word. The rumour is the 320 fleet is going to have to work harder to ensure the slots are flown as long haul flights are reduced. I believe we have to fly the slot 80% of the time?

Is this all a overreaction? Hopefully summer and a level head will see a cautious but more measured response from the public

The only freeze message I am currently aware of is that Mixed Fleet Customer Service Managers (CSMs) have allegedly been told there is a freeze..now that’s only anecdotal since I haven’t seen the message myself and if it does exist the context might be a freeze only on Mixed Fleet Recruitment.

(edit to add: Whilst was typing bex seems to have possibly confirmed that’s the story)

Re slots - I believe given the circumstances there’s a move Internationally to produce an agreement to protect airport slots (any airport) regardless of whether they are flown or not....frankly it wouldn’t look good if aircraft were flown around empty simply to slot sit. I think such agreements have been made in the past (possibly post 9/11).

http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2020/...-lose-it-rule/