Play. Pay peanuts, get…pilots.
 

So Play an Icelandic low cost/class/something started flights (or a flight) this last week on an A321. As pilots are always keen on upholding the status of their profession, two ex-WOW clowns drew up a pilots contract no management could have dreamt of. Along the way, they also drew up a contract for Cabin Crew that looks sure to lead to a major fight with Unions in Iceland. The Clowns changed the WOW pilots union to a shared union for pilots and cabin crew. With conditions even Josef Varadi of Wizzair hardly dreamt of.
And now the pilots of Play have been rewarded with about the most degrading uniform ever seen. The old adage “pay peanuts, get monkeys” thus needs to be adapted.
Sneakers for guys in their forties, one can only imagine the stink after a 10 hour duty day…collarless shirts. Did no one on pilot managementside say stop! ? Interesting discussion about this over on Linkedin. Unfortunately the red socks are not showing.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2bfbbe7bb.jpeg

I thought that April 1st was well behind us on the calendar. A pilot wearing sneakers is something that I thought was reserved for light aircraft or other non-revenue flights.

It is a tactics ,the more they looks ridiculous the less you need to pay them . What this picture is telling to the people that knows very little regarding aviation ? Flying it’ s less complicated than driving a bus , sad no one stand up against this circus stunt .
This pseudo managers will never see my money .

Good grief! What a joke.

Is it just me, or does the guy on the left look like Oliver Hardy?

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2bfbbe7bb.jpeg

An unknown female comic with Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel on the set of "Way out West" a whacky story about two baggage handlers for the Greyhound Bus company




https://artscenterlive.org/wp-conten...gCYYGPwSHl.jpg

Two pilots for new Icelandic startup So Play showing off their new uniforms

How bad is the salary? I couldn’t find any information online…

These are the cabin crew salaries. Couldn't find anything on the pointy end rates, however based on this, flight crew salaries could be around 12-13m isk + pension per year for the left seat methinks. Taxes are around 25-30%...
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3add787cff.jpg

The eyes are deceiving me, the eyes are deceiving me!

From what i heard the pilot salaries are going to be similar to what WOW was paying, maybe less pension this time. The new uniforms are hideous though. They are only temporary AFAIK. Kind of a publicity stunt one hopes...

ok wow those salaries aren't great... but sadly still much better than pink...

booze

The new CEO boasted pilot salaries would be 30% less than WOW. I’ve seen quotes of “green” F/O at €2000 per month… Supermarkets pay better in Iceland.

I sincerely hope you are trolling us.
Aircrew involved in public transportation wear uniforms as they need to be clearly recognized while on duty, together with their rank and position onboard.

Well, you're right. Can't think of any reason actually.

This has to be a joke, and is in very poor taste.

Passengers in a plane have to be told what to do at certain points for safety reasons. Window blinds have to be up, arm rests down etc before landing for purely safety reasons. Passengers have to stop what they're doing and go and sit down and do up their seat belts during turbulence and other phases of flight, again for safety reasons.

It really matters, so aircrews therefore need to project authority, hence proper uniforms. In an emergency, aircrew need to be clearly identifiable, for example, during an evacuation. The clowns in the photo, pretending to be pilots but with their trainers and no ties, will not be easily picked out in the chaos by passengers or emergency services.

The clown suits in this photo will do nothing to enhance authority. They look like they are in a pantomime or a strip-a-gram or a fancy dress party.

Pilots and cabin crew have been through and passed intensive and difficult training. Cabin crew have extensive knowledge of safety procedures, fire fighting, crowd control, (aircrew actually go to a swimming pool to learn and practice water survival), medical procedures, including CPR and use of defibrillators. Pilots have knowledge of engineering, hydraulics, electrics, theory of flight, navigation etc, as well as an ability to fly accurately with good hand-eye coordination. On top of all that those us selected as pilots are calm in emergencies and do what is needed to resolve failure situations - that is why we are highly paid.

Aircrew are not just people off the street, they have achieved high standards and passed many complex and difficult exams. Aircrew are not a joke and should be valued, respected and looked up to.

Just like doctors. To be honest, I feel more comfortable if my doctor wears a jacket and tie, or the equivalent smart attire if they are female. If they decide to wear a tie, it shows that the doctor is taking their job seriously, and has respect for their profession and their patients. Steve Wright, the radio DJ wears a tie at work, because he says it shows respect.

The clown suits in the photo will do nothing towards this, and are pathetic, as are the bosses that came up with them.

Frankly, they are taking the piss.

Agreed. It's a shame. Maybe it is just a publicity stunt but these crew members do not project professionalism or authority.

Decent enough hat. Good for somewhere to place the car keys or ciggies so I don't lose them.

Great shoes for doing a walk round in the slush and grit!

I once worked for an airline where the main investor's wife insisted on designing the uniforms - A fortune was spent, and they were ditched after about two weeks! (Still have the shirts though - the only ones I've ever found tailored to someone with a normal BMI).

Uniforms actually have a key safety feature to them. They fulfill the requirement for active crew members to be easily identifiable for the passengers. That's why some companies have a procedure which does not allow deadheading crew members to wear full uniform, i.e. you need to take off your epaulettes and tie if you're not serving as active crew but only taking a ride as a passenger before or after duty. That's probably also why pilot uniforms look more or less the same throughout the world.

Oceancrosser is an Icelander who is trying to preserve his huge salary. Iceland is an odd country with huge wages, huge house and food prices so a low cost airline is never going to work. However the justification for these huge salaries etc is completely unjustified. Time for a bit of realism in the Icelandic economy I feel but as the political system on the island is based on relatives and friends it will never happen. Vested interests will always look after themselves and will do their best to destroy anything that will rock the boat such as Wow or Play. Icelandair crews were the only ones who turned away in disgust in my forty year career when we were both waiting to get on a crew bus in KEF.

Take the stripes out and they look like hip bell boys.

Then you should really make up your mind and start hoping for Play and their contract (I take those at your word value) to go out of the business ASAP. Otherwise, if they're successful partly due to those disgusting contracts, others will follow suit in their fight for survival.

The underlying problem was recently mentioned in the 777x thread. Cheap money the bankers have no-one to lend to end up propelling unsustainable businesses. In such environment even building a responsible long going business becomes a foul strategy for survival, as those who lauch high to explode later (WOW, NAS, Primera, Kingfisher...) steal the market leaving you dry, if you planned to pay your debts which they did not.

Unfair competition is not great. Will there be an explanation "we aim to hire crews no longer sharp enough to be rehired for their pre-covid posts" again? The uniforms suggest so.

These uniforms are from a B movie right?