Bond for Airbus cross-crew course.
 

My company have recently started operating the A330 as well as A320/321. They have now announced that the bond for all future CCQ conversions the 330 will be £12000 for 18 months. Seems a bit steep to me for a 10 day course, most of which is ground school. Anyone know how much these courses cost?. I suspect that we get a certain number free with the a/c anyway but I am not sure. What are the arrangements in other companies that have both ie. Airtours, Monarch etc.?

Thanks in advance for any info.

Max.

I take it by the lack of response that we are the only ones to suffer this disgraceful behaviour - thankyou SK

You mean that they not only bond you for your initial typerating, but also when they buy a new type, and transfer you to that one. Price is steep, but the whole idea of putting yet another bond on you, when tranfering to a new type in the same company, is outright disgusting.!
Wonderbusdriver, whaddya mean by "thankyou SK"?

Airtours don't..........(yet)

Sounds like BS to me, not a good idea. Better to pay crew what they are worth (especially for a small carrier) so they will not want to leave. Much cheaper in the end;.... training is expensive, with or without bonding.

I was told by an Airbus testpilot that GECAT, London Gatwick, charges about 3000-3500 British pounds for the 330/340 CCQ, which seems about right.

I would suspect that the bond is in direct response to someone leaving, having only just finishing the CCQ course? Remember, bonds are only a problem if you want to leave.

Just wonder if re-bonding of already employed pilots is legal. It is not legal in Austria as all training expenses incurred during the employment are non-refundable by law.

Is CCQ done by seniority or something you "want to have". If they'd ask a bond you could still decline the CCQ.

It's true that bonds are only a problem if you want to leave, but then you can never know what the future holds. Bonds are one-sided measures as the airline will not guarantee that they'll keep you for the time of the bond, and they are a measure to limit the pilot "market" and thus opposed by our worldwide professional representation.

Airlines should keep pilots through good working conditions, not bonds.

When a company gets Aibuses from AI they usually get training for a certain number of crews per aircraft as part of the package. Therefore it is questionable whether bonding is justified at all.

I certainly don't want to condone bonding but the training package thrown in by Airbus is just part of the cost. The main cost in training pilots, especially captains is lost revenue flying while on the course and - for captains - while flying under supervision/line orientation/whatever you call a captain and a smarter captain flying together :-)(Won't be that much for CCQ but can be quite big-ticket for conversion)