With Thomas Cook up for sale and the holiday side not doing so well, are TC pilots at all worried or trying to leave? I’m not asking to scaremonger - I recently seen a job advert for pilots via their own Facebook page and wondering if it’s worth looking at.

A friend of mine had a start date to work in one of their retail shops but he got told it wasn’t going to happen anymore as there’s now a ban on recruiting new staff for all retail shops!

Dozens resigning every day. Most jointing Avion Express and SmartLynx. All pilots in melt down.

Time to LHS will be less than 12 months at this rate.....

Freight is a secure place - profitable and growing. DHK has been a haven for many years. A bunch of us joined in 2000-2002 from charters under threat of redundancy - i’m Ex TC in the guise of JMC. Since then we’ve picked up from all sorts of European airlines that have gone under, most recently a small crop from Monarch. Ironically, a number of pilots who left us in the past have suffered multiple redundancies some having had the horrible chain of silver jet, excel, Globespan.

Hope this helps

But with the massive debt, is there a chance the whole TCG biting the dust?

Would say it’s highly unlikely.

Is it safe to say then if TCG do sale their airline section it would be with an some sort of agreement with the airline (buyer) to fill up the seats with their customers meaning the TCX crews will still be flying TCG customers just under different banner on the tail.

TCG specifically stated that that is one main thing they want if they sell the airline, that the buyer will block a % of seats for TCG holiday customers, and how can they do that without keeping the current crews.

However, personally, I don think the airline will be sold. Don’t think any airline will take it on, nor any ballsy investment groups, and TCG will definitely not “strip it for parts” as like someone said earlier that will be like Wallpapering the living room while the kitchen is burning down. I think TCX will live on for a while, unless there’s some shock Virgin or JetBlue or IAG takeover which would likely only happen when pigs start flying south for the winter.

So who is more likely to last, then?? TCX or Jet2?! Let the games begin...

Not a game I think anybody wants to really take part in, and certainly not one people should be excited about......

Don’t I know it... Just trying to make light of a pretty horrible situation. It was actually a genuine question. Aside from the obvious TCX worries re: sale, which one do we think is likely to last longest?

TCX have a lot of debt, Jet2 have had a rapid expansion. Are either sustainable?

What are people’s thoughts on Virgin Atlantic, and their ability to ride out any possible upcoming economic issues?
Are they now more financially secure and stable with Delta owning 49%?

I don’t know why people think Jet 2 are poking a hornets nest at STN, There is little business conflict Ryanair are a Loco and Jet 2 a package tour company.

I would also not bet money aganst the Jet 2 boss Philip Meason, he was doing deals long before MoL left school and has built the very substantial Dart Group that has a wide range of interests .

Who or what is Purple Bricks?

Delta (Biggest and most profitable airline in the world ) is the biggest shareholder of Virgin . Also KLM/Airfrance are also in the mix . So Virgin is in a very stable position . Haters will hate but Virgin is a fantastic place to work , makes BA look like an absolute shambles ! (Which is sad as I have had many fond memories at BA )

More interestingly, we seem to have a number of economic genius posting on this thread... What is this huge contraction in the industry we will see in the next 18 months? Or this nailed on recession?? Apart from the fall out of Brexit? Which, if doesn’t end with a cliff edge Brexit, where will it leave our UK industry?? Contraction, or major exapnasion plans? Truth is none of us know! Pundits have been predicting the next credit crisis for over four years now, I’m not criticising as I am genuinely interested how we know this ticking time bomb is about to explode ( excluding Brexit).

Could it not be the industry is already going through a natural correction? Monarch, Norwegian, Primera, Wow, Air Berlin & Flybmi.. question is, I guess, will other Airlines expand rapidly to fill perceived voids???

At BA the head honcho’s are curbing expansion thoughts until a big event on March the 29th. With that said they are projecting increasing profits over the next two years, circa €2.1 billion..... Maybe their analysts need to look at this thread!

deltahotel‘s Post is the most valid one on this Thread, yet everyone seems to be ignoring it.

Often called “the industry’s best kept secret”, it seems to be easy to see why it remains a ‘secret’ when people like deltahotel state it so clearly and yet everyone ignores it. Freight is growing well (airfreight services contribute £7.2 billion to the UK economy and support 151,000 jobs) and that has to be the answer to thoughts on Job Security.

exactly , also
when the job gets taken over by computers completely it will be freight first

Well, it’s a thread about security rather than ts cs and lifestyle and when you’ve just been made redundant maybe that’s important. Just trying to add to the sum of knowledge to aid those recently cast adrift ( or anyone else who may fancy a change).

Other stuff is (partially) correct and I appreciate it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. After 16 years of this I still don’t think i’ve been as bone tired knackered as after 3 consecutive night turkeys/Cyprus/canaries with driving home between. I never could prepare properly for 0500 reports. I didn’t like the seasonal skewing and working hard throughout the summer.

The fleet? The LH ac were brand new 10 years ago. The current crop of fleet replacement 757s are about 15 years old - what’s the average age of the tck fleet?

Hope this helps

dh

Are they basing in the UK DH? Or is it still Leipzig?

Main European operating base is Leipzig, but crews are based there and also EMA. We’re taking on a lot of non brits so I think there are EMA basings on offer.