Summer roster
 

I've been hearing that summers can be pretty brutal at Jet2; rolling 5 or 6 days on with 2 off. Lots of 4am landing back in base and little in the way of stability or roster protection. Can anyone confirm or deny? Specifically for the Airbus fleet but I understand the ramp up in deliveries probably won't have produced a "full" summer yet. Again this is what I've been told and I've been in the industry long enough to know that perception and reality are not always the same thing. A PM with a RHS roster would also be great if anyone is willing.

You won't get a representative RHS roster as there aren't enough Airbus in the fleet yet and it's overcrewed pending deliveries. From a 737 perspective, summers are busy in both seats. It's definitely not a 'rolling' 5 or 6 on with 2 off, you might have a '5 - 2' in a month but then it would be followed by something random like 3 on 3 off then 4 on 2 off. There's no predictability in that sense. You will get very late landings at the bigger bases such as MAN / STN, as the second wave is scheduled 2-3am but always at least an hour or so late. However, a 4am landing will get you a duty rest period the day after. Yes, summer is disruptive (June to September anyway) but outside of this things are fairly stable, but this is the holiday market in the UK. Winter will be quiet apart from an upsurge in December.

If you like your fixed pattern then LowCost airlines are the way to go. If you prefer the happy upbeat atmosphere of a holiday company with busy summers and quiet winters then Jet2 or TUI will suit you better. But you WILL work hard for it in the peak months.

The remuneration the pilots get for hours worked (5-600hrs) is pretty spectacular. I assume it’s within Jet2s interest to get more winter work in ? For example Cape Verde ? Or if you believe the rumours LH

LH isn't happening anytime soon. Not in the next 5-10 years anyway.

I used to think that. Now I’m not so sure.

how so ?

LH would be a good way to successfully ruin the airline - I’m sure the management are bright enough to look at premiair, Norwegian , WOW etc and realise long haul with low cost is almost impossible to do and make money but it’s a good and routine rumour to introduce every now and then .

Unless we are talking about the “ Tango “ routes to Tenerife ??

yes but it wouldn’t really be like those airlines quoted , it would be like TUI LH which is a good product I think

You make a fair point. But it’s comparing Apples and Oranges really. Low cost flight only versus holiday package tours. It would be a risk to part from the known, but that’s business sometimes. As far as Cape Verde is concerned, I’d heard a rumour that TUI had basically threatened to pull out from the island completely if any of the resorts even showed a bit of ankle towards J2 or any other operator…

At the end of the day, you have to play to your strengths, and maybe LH wouldn’t be appropriate considering the J2 customer demographic.

Jet2 still haven't conquered the Mediterranean yet. There are some parts of Greece and a lot of North Africa that are yet to be exploited, and within the current fleet capabilities. It's just a case of being able to get enough quality hotels to to guarantee the product. I'm sure if there is money to be made on Orlando and Mexico it will happen in the future, but I don't see that happening before Egypt, Tunisia and the remaining Greek islands not yet served. The Med is a guaranteed earner whatever happens to the economy, so it would be an uncharacteristic risk by Jet2 to suddenly invest a lot of money on a riskier strategy.

Yes , that makes sense .

Didn't they used to lease an 330 off Air tanker ? Surely easiest way to go on the seasonal Orlando etc …rather than get their own .


But airlines need rumours , because rumours provide hope for the future . 757 rumour was always “ we are getting 767s “.

There are always A330 leases. At the moment there is one for the winter and two for the summer (was 3 last year). If Jet2 get their own A330s you will see them flying short-haul from MAN before any long-haul venture, just because there is limited capacity at MAN and even in the winter there are several flights a day to certain destinations, which could easily be covered by one full A330. The fact it's on the same rating as the A321 means it's flexible with crew too. The only issue is the engine cycles and the fuel burn required to get it to cruising altitude. These would be outweighed by a full load each time though.

[QUOTE=737 Jockey;11613050]You make a fair point. But it’s comparing Apples and Oranges really. Low cost flight only versus holiday package tours. It would be a risk to part from the known, but that’s business sometimes. As far as Cape Verde is concerned, I’d heard a rumour that TUI had basically threatened to pull out from the island completely if any of the resorts even showed a bit of ankle towards J2 or any other operator…

As TUI have invested heavily and own or have joint ventures with many of the other hotel owners I don’t think pulling out is an option. Whether Jet2 could find enough hotels to work with is probably more likely the problem.

the 330 is a separate rating to the 320 family

It's just a CCQ course. Provided by Airbus as part of any purchase and not a huge training commitment. Probably not worth having all the crew trained on both, but certainly some of the experienced crew trained on mixed-fleet flying. Trainers for example.

I can see it happening sooner rather than later.

Hello All,



Has anyone received a start date recently for NTR FO position. I completed my assessment in January and received a call confirming that I met the benchmark and would be contacted in due course, after which I was placed in the holding pool. However, I recently received a generic email requesting my base preference and notice period. Additionally, upon checking the portal, I noticed that my application, which had progressed to the interview stage, is now listed as "under review," indicating a regression in the process.



I'm curious about the typical wait time before receiving a start date. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.



Thank you in advance.

It can vary for a number of different reasons, e.g. rated or non rated, base preference, your notice period, pilots declining agreed course dates at late notice etc etc. There is no 'typical' wait time in the hold pool. If you're non rated you are going to require a longer course and require more line training sectors than a rated pilot. If training capacity is an issue it might increase your wait time in the hold pool, it might not, depending on what the company's requirement is. Good luck. (I waited nearly a year for an interview then 2 months for the offer as a rated Airbus Captain. Others had offers immediately possibly due to base preference and notice period).

thank you.

I'm in the same situation, Zeteo. I suspect it is very likely they will be figuring out their training capacity and programme for the end of this year.

Yeah I’m exactly the same, hold pool since the end of January and just the generic emails. Seems most people recently have been waiting 1-3 months but I’m assuming any start dates now will be tail end of summer (especially for those of us with 3 month notice periods!). Seems myself and some people I know with Man/Bhx as their first base choices have been waiting a bit longer.

Ditto, passed NTR FO assessment at start of Feb. After the initial success email, I received a generic update email last week trawling for people who were able to start a course in April. Unable due to a 3 month notice period. Out of interest, I've asked for LPL as a base first choice. So far that's the only update i've had.

Has anyone had any update about hold pool moving? Been in since Nov. Seems to have gone very very quiet.

Rated or NTR? Have any 737 rated folks had any offers/start dates recently?

Got an offer on 737 non rated SFO starting end of July 24 , I can't start in July so hopefully I didn't miss my chance !!

Hi guys ,

can someone please provide the take home monthly figure for an Airbus captain ? I’m not sure how much you get in flight pay etc…. On top of your basic .
is it still competitive after EasyJet pay rise etc..

Can you still join EZY as DEC in the UK these days? I thought the cadet production line put an end to that?

You can't compare the airlines side by side. They are totally different.

I understand that , but money is money at the end of the day

You can definitely compare how much money you’ll estimate to come out at the end of each year..

A busy month would give you circa £13-1400 in sector pay and duty pay. Quieter months about £3-500 sometimes less.

Take home depends on how much you want to put in to your pension.

And for comparison on sector pay; at easyjet even in winter it’s around £1000. Summer month up to £1700.

yes but I believe at Jet2 you barely do anything in winter , looked at a friends hours and it was around 450 for the year

Directly in as SFO?

My hours for last winter; Oct 40 Nov 54 Dec 32 Jan 65 Feb 49 Mar 59. A fair number of unused standbys there as well, also the schedule is much less punishing, earlies not many before 6 and lates usually finished by 9/10.

Unusual to have 65 hours in Jan? I guess your base has a lot of Captains taking months off in deep winter. Even as a trainer that’s high for Jan.

@BasicSteve

You also might want want to consider that anyone joining as an Airbus non-trainer skipper will not do anywhere near the average Jet2 hours for a couple of summers, as most of the sectors are training to put guys in place ready for the ramp up in deliveries in winter 25/26.

This is great if you want an easy roster, but not great if you value sector pay over lifestyle. Since you stated money was the bigger factor you may be better joining a high-hours loco such as EZY or RYR.

I’d say this winter was higher than average, we are doing more winter sun routes than pre Covid. I also had minimal leave over winter as I took it during summer. (Highly recommended)

I've heard unpaid leave is offered over the winter. This has two results 1) the people who are working, are working much harder 2) huge amounts of standby for those that are working, to further incentivise taking the unpaid leave.

Could anyone confirm?

The winter leave has been a pretty good deal, take two months off lose only one months pay, so effectively it’s half paid winter leave not unpaid winter leave. It doesn’t generate more standby, if no one had winter leave there would be less flying to spread around between pilots so even more people on standby each day.

I Think the poster who listed winter flying hours was actually an easy jet pilot, if their posting history is anything to go by, hence the high number of hours. My highest was 40h in November and lowest was 8 in January. But that’s on the 737, as has been said there’s a lot of training happening on the airbus so low flying hours in the winter for non trainers. But that’s always been the same if you’re in a base with a lot of training captains, at least on the 737 fleet.