Hi does anyone expect any recruitment at Thomas Cook this year? PPJN says recruiting for 16/17

There is a Chief Pilot and he's been there for a long time, the DFO is new because the previous UK one moved up to group level.

Recruitment is likely though I'd say more like 20 or 30 people, not like the 130 or so hired in the last 2 years.

Unless you are a low hour wannabe , it would be a brave move to join TC with the likelihood of significant downward corrections in the european leisure travel business. Read contraction.

5 5am reports in a row doing 4 sectors? Nope, not true and not allowed.

So...tell us how it is then?

As far as I am aware, if the CI is before 6am local you can only fly two sectors, I stand to be corrected

I wished you were right!

Day 1 you cannot report before 6am. Day 1 and day 5 should not be elongated duties, there shouldn't be consecutive 4 sector duty days through the week. I've just done a little AMS and back. All week I have only 2 sector days and not particularly long. For August during reserve month and no leave, I'm not even doing 65hrs (I am scratching my head as to why it's so low mind, not high on hours).

Apart from the day 1 early start that cannot be earlier than 6am, crewing may try it on with lots of 4 sector days, especially LGW. If they do file a fatigue concern that they're not following FRMS guidelines, sometimes it's changed sometimes not, if they don't and you're tired go fatigue.

EZY is a different airline depending on where you are based, I wouldn't want to be at LGW. I'm regional base and do approx 700-750 hours a year.

The 5 on generally is a mixture, a double domestic isn't a particularly long day and is over quickly, don't work very hard during the winter, again it depends on what base you're at.

I bet TC is a cushy number, for me at a regional base and LHS with no real want to go LH, I find EZY hard to beat, some things are annoying like all airlines and days can be long, find me a company in this day and age who don't want to get the max out of you.

Having experience of working for both TCX and ezy as flightcrew, and while TCX is not the perfect Airline to work for (Mcgoo Air would have a roster that would work you once a week on a short sector reporting 10am and off duty mid afternoon for double pay - like all employers, airline or otherwise, you can find plenty to have a bitch about with any job and wish things were improved) that in the role of flight crew then my own opinion is that there is a substantial gulf in working for the two companies. TCX is a different proposition, and in my own case much better for time at home and salary. Dont get me wrong ezy wasnt truly awful

Long haul isnt an option at ezy, so that cannot be considered in any relation gauge, however if you compare apples for apples, and make a straight comparison of for example LGW V LGW short/med haul or NCL V NCL short/med haul then my view would be id rather be sat in the flightdeck of a TCX aircraft over an ezy aircraft any day of the week.

The one area Id consider that ezy do have it better is that the home every night means always home before midnight and TCX often means 3am. Id also consider the training teams of both to be excellent too so in my own experience they would dead heat on training. Other than that Id take TCX for every other reason that we hold dear to our hearts

Ive flown for both and its an opinion from operating out of several bases for both.

The obvious rider is that this is just my own opinion. However that said, Im not the only pilot I know who has flown for both, and although third party reporting isnt the way to go, I know others view is of a similar vein to my own. Although I am sure there are many happy folk working for ezy

Who knows what the future holds for all of us in the industry, hopefully a decent future for all. It is becoming apparent that TCX are expanding into flying to the US which looks a good plan in todays situation in the industry.


Safe flying and happy landings to all.