Happy Places to Work
 

Conversations on the forum often focus on money. I’d be interested to hear opinions on which airlines are genuinely happy places to work, small and large, worldwide. What are they doing right? Are most of your colleagues happy, both forward and aft of the flight deck door? Are you looked after by your managers?

Wizz Air ! , oh damn I thought you meant funny not happy. disregard....

Money is irrelevant in the UK once you get above 100k , even more so above 125k (I think) .
My dream would be float planes in the Maldives …. Wearing shorts to work.
But in the UK probably somewhere like Jet2 at a small base . I think the skippers are on around £135k basic for not much work it seems.
Short commute to work is important I think for a good quality of life also.
Part time would be nice

Probably those who are not on prune ;-)

From observation only, with no insider info:

Dolomiti,Air France, Lufthansa, Easy Switzerland

Other way round - between £100-125K you make pennies, even without student loans or kids. Have young kids in childcare settings and you can literally be paying to go to work. Not a figure of speech. You can take home more as a part time skipper than a full time one.

Get through £150K and it can start to be worth going to work again. But if you’ve got a couple of kids what would you rather do, be part time and make £100K, or make £150K full time and see an extra £400 a month, if that…?

The net jets pilots I met are very happy, and the lifestyle does seem nice if work means more than just money

jet 2 iaw the OPs criteria - not positive on any count, was the feedback I got.

I suppose it's relative to what you are used to, and your personal circumstances. I work for Jet2 at the regional base I want to be at, with the comfort of the company being about as financially secure as it can be (something that's most important to me with a family). It's also by far the happiest and friendliest place I've worked at (previously worked for one of Europe's biggest short-haul, and also the biggest international long-haul carrier) and the support from management is superb (I've heard that it wasn't always this way in the past).

However, there are pretty much zero perks at J2. It's very well paid and you won't work too hard as a normal line pilot, which seems to suit the guys here that are married with a family, and that is the type of pilot they aim to recruit I think.

Curious what you were referring to with regard to J2 "ops criteria"?

I have a 5/4/5/4 roster and managed to negotiate MOSTLY late reports. Half my days on are standbys. I'm away 5-6 nights per month. On target for about £120k. Brand new planes, live an hour from my base. Should I be happy or not?

Easyjet pilots on an european (non uk) contract seem pretty happy to me, with virtually no turnover on the lhs and a very reasonable workload for the money.

Myself and most of my colleagues at NetJets Europe are pretty content. The pilots I have met at FlexJet seem pretty content too.

It’s all personal at the end of the day , one persons dream job will be another’s nightmare.
I find one of the biggest disasters is divorce , if you can avoid getting divorced then you are doing well !

OK, moving to other happiness metrics, what's the best type of gig for keeping those other pounds (weight) in check?

OP; the [criteria in the] Original Post!

Postman.

I’ve never seen a fat postman.

Ah thanks!
I read it as OPS criteria
Although I'm as equally confused at the claim now, as J2 are good in the OP's criteria IMHO

​​​​​​Very good 😊

I used to do removals, and let me tell you that carrying sofas up and down flights of stairs all day really helps to keep you in shape, until you go to a McDonalds drive thru for lunch of course :rolleyes:

In my experience and that of my network, the most content narrow body pilots are who live at base with some stability rosterwise

I’d say it’s horses for courses. I would imagine that when you’re starting out, a small base with a few aircraft and crews with a variety of routes would be fantastic. A flying club where you get paid to fly. After 5 years, the repetitiveness may get to you. After 10 years, you’re probably ready to move on. But to where? Long haul certainly has variety, but seems to coincide with when you have just started a family and want to be home more around the children. Unless your company offers part time working, you can forget anything but spending short snap-shots of time between trips with them.
What is the answer? Answers on a post-card please.