BA Holdpool
 

I was wondering whether anyone else was sitting in the BA holdpool and had heard anything from BA? There's been no update since Sept last year. After logging in a week back it now no longer displays First Officer Holdpool under applications so I assume the holdpool no longer exists?

Which hold pool were you in? Did you have a job offer or just swimming after successful application?

As far as I know there's still a few members in the Priority Return Pool (redundancies) waiting on a call back - a friend has just received a start date having been let go 3 weeks after starting in March 2020.

After them there is a Priority Hold Pool - these are the ones who had a start date/fleet which was revoked in 2020. They have mentors from BA to keep in touch and be point of contact and active hold pool status to end of 2023.

After that it was just the 'Hold Pool'. One guy I know who was in this has heard nothing like you unfortunately when the updates dried up.

Good luck!

I was in the Holdpool swimming and waiting for a course to be assigned but never ended up getting one before everything froze up. Not sure what the plans are for those in the standard hold pool, I sadly suspect that that hold pool may have just been scrapped. There have been no updates whatsoever, not even a thanks but no thanks :/

Not sure then I'm afraid. The email confirming a place in the hold pool after successful selection used to state a hold pool validity of a year? I'll try and find out some more info for you

I’m in the PRP holdpool. No direct contact or updates from BA for a while but I understand they are very busy / focussed on Euroflyer recruitment and operations at the moment so not expecting a call to arms in the very near future. My personal guess would be a call February next year in time for the spring / summer 2023 timetable OR sadly not at all. It’s their train set.

They've taken at least 40 from the top of the PRP since a few weeks ago and will certainly need more as they are short on LH RHS. Not saying you'll be offered LH but a shuffle here and there is needed.

Thanks for the info AirMission. From a personal point of view (and I know everyone is different), I would prefer to return to SH Left Hand Seat LHR, which is where I was for the last 18 years before leaving. However, with limited promotion prospects within the Company at the moment, it could present an ‘industrial challenge’ in reinstating former Captains. I’m not holding out much hope but I could be pleasantly surprised. On the positive side, most of the online video forums I tuned into, the presenters did seem to suggest former pilots would return to their previous status / seniority unless I misunderstood them or indeed if they’ve changed their minds. Again it’s their train set.

Based on your past experience, can I ask why you didn't take up the offer of Euroflier DEC? As you talk about wanting both SH and LHS which was offered to redundant BA pilots, or were you just not high enough in the pool? I'm sorry to say that based on that discussions with colleagues of mine within BA, I do not believe those who were made redundant would return to their old seniority/pay point level.

Agree. I knew that the Pay Point wouldn’t be reinstated but I got the impression from the forums that the seniority would. Seems I’m now retired. Ah well.

Seniority has been re-instated. Pay point hasn't but is apparently on the list of things to ask for in BALPA.

Based on what’s written above does this sound right:

• until Easter next year it’ll be only PRP people getting start dates,
• for the remainder of next year the PHP people (those who were given course dates but never started) getting start dates
• at the end of next year (if at all), everyone else in the regular holdpool getting start dates

It seems like besides Gatwick BA isn’t in any rush to hire external people.

Not what I heard from a trainer recently.

The current consensus is that everyone from the PRP thats coming back, will be back by the end of the year. Not everyone wants to return (understandable).

This apparently leaves us needing 50-150 pilots. If it's the lower number (the winter plan hasn't been finalised yet, never mind 2023) then they'll "sweat the assets". If it's the higher, they'll need to recruit.

Theres also a rumour were getting 10 or so LH hulls (mainly A350s, but some 787) this winter that were originally destined for Russia but have been released to the market. This would be in addition to the scenario outlined above.

Happy swimming. Its not a bad job, really.

Is this holdpool empty? full? in need of topping up? When if any could there be any external recruitment to get ready?

My view would be, subject to the economy not melting down entirely again due to recession/rate rises/high inflation that BA will sooner or later have a bit of a panic about pilot recruitment, much as they are about recruitment for other positions at the moment. Post Brexit there is a smaller number of people with the right to live and work in the UK, and everyone else (easy/ryr/jet2/Tui) etc are going to be competing for these same people. Cadet schemes are a long time in the making. You can’t set them up and have pilots ready 6 or even 12 months later, and I don’t see anyone even talking about setting them up.

In the meantime I’ve lost count of the number of colleagues I speak to who are adamant they aren’t going to go to 65. Honestly, I’m not in the business of giving people false hope and I freely admit there are a lot of unknowns, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if things started to change very quickly towards the back end of this year.

Anyone with insider knowledge on what BA would plan to do with those of us who hadn't quite reached the Hold Pool yet? I managed to get through to the Sim Assessment pre-covid, and my application is still showing on the portal. Any ideas if they would plan to kick off from where they left, or start the process from scratch?

Various people caught up in the middle of the assessment process . An email was sent out at the time stating their progress would be “frozen” and if & when external recruitment started up again, they could pick up from where they left off.

However, without wanting to repeat the obvious , there’s now a question mark over if & when external recruitment will start again, and if it does, whether people with active applications in the system will be asked to start all over again. I suspect the priority at the minute is the PRP and PHP. But things at BA can and have changed rapidly in the past ….

2 quick questions:

If you are put onto a long haul fleet upon joining, is the basic pay higher than those who joined at the same time but were put onto the short haul fleet?

If you are 737 rated, are they likely to keep you Boeing or is it possible they may still put you on the A320?

Yes. Don't get me started...

EDIT: As pointed out by White Van Driver, PP1 is the same for all fleets, but diverges by about £900 cumulatively per year after that.


It depends on what they require at the time, but all else being equal, you're more likely to go to a Boeing fleet.

Ok I'll get you started - I thought LH and SH have the same PP1?
Granted SH becomes less than LH as you progress up the PPs, but the question was about the basic salary on joining the company?

The PRP should be empty by September if courses continue to be offered into the Autumn... or atleast everyone will be offered a job back. My money is on external recruitment starting in the next few weeks if not months as the lead time to get a pilot in is about 6 months... Application, assessment day, sim assessment, offer, notice period, security and reference..... PRP and PHP will be long but not so fond memories very soon!