Not to be facicious, but I'm not sure you can get vaseline though security any more. I believe BALPA are petitioning the airlines to uses smaller poles when shafting us in the future, although we'll believe it when we see it. :ok:

Yes, smaller diameter, but greater length, one suspects.

There are NO career airlines anymore, I'm sorry to say. Prostitution is prostitution, whether you get screwed on the silk sheets at the Ritz or in the back of a Micra in a quiet corner of an industrial estate in Aberdeen.

It would be nice to start some sort of revolution, but there are too many wannabees who can't see the wood for the trees and will bend over forwards to fly a Cessna 152 half-price, and by the time anyone had achieved anything, there would be no oil left to fly on anyhow - or at least none available to us in the west.

That's my (very upbeat) assessment, anyhow...

Rumour becoming reality, -10 aircraft in 2009 means -140 pilots. Too bad, I am sad, declining UK economy and increasing fuel price is adding fuel on fire. May have to revert back to old time sailboat to cross Atlantic. I am sure we will ride through this rough rides:ok: keep on pressing.

I'm not sure about that Vaseline comment, it might very well be the case that you can't get it through security any more. I'll ask one of the stewards. None the less, a tip from the top, if you're in it for the long haul (not LH flying!) then stay where you are in Tfly. If you got the fire axe shoved up your ass sideways, like me, then do yourself a favour. I never saw the pole they used on me, it came out of no where, so yeah, I'm pissed; I like to get kissed before I get fu*ked and Tfly skipped the foreplay. I'm moving on. Who's coming with me?

"10 aircraft in 2009 means -140 pilots."
That seems a hell of a lot of pilots. What crew:aircraft ratio have they been using.

well gosh thats a toughy

140 pilots / 2 = 70 crews
70 crews / 10 aircraft = 7 crews per aircraft.

Hardly complex calculus.

7 crews / aircraft seems about par for the course.

thats a big crewing ratio.

easy use 5.5

Easy don't do long-haul.

GSM use a much better ratio... we have 8 : 1 (that is eight aircraft to one crew).:)

Which fleet are the 10 aircraft being chopped from?

Airbus, 737 classic and 757.

Redundancies, sorry - voluntary severence scheme, announced today.

The letter I got said that there were quite a few shown an interest in volunteering to go.

Does anyone have any idea how many people have shown an interest? Im near the bottom of the pile and if they dont get nearly all volunteers then I guess I will be getting the bad news.

I don't work at Tfly so this is speculation, however In a previous life I worked at a large (non airline) company that had a number of volantary redundancy / early retirement packages and they were always very oversubscribed by the guys nearing retirement with many years in the pension pot - I suspect this will be the case here!

Also I am reasonably well informed that redundancies can no longer be based on 'last in first out', 'seniority' etc etc. as this would infringe the current employment legislation. I'm no lawyer but that was the view of the last 2 companies I worked for when they came to make redundancies.

757 driver

As yet there has been no case of anyone citing age discrimination in relation to losing a job through redundancy. Until then the method that is most likely to comply with the regulations is last in first out.

what is tradtional redundant package? Understand Tfly is quite generous, input from insiders appreciated.

Not really covered by UK employment law then!!

They are a business, not a charity. Generosity in business is relative to your position and perspective. Some will see an offer as generous, when others will view the same package as falling well short of their expectations. The company (TUI Travel Plc) are pitching their Voluntary Severance Package at a level they believe will get enough volunteers to fill the positions to be lost. They will not pay more than they think they will have too, but need to offer enough to make it attract enough volunteers. They will NOT want to go down the compulsory redundancy route as it could end up being a very costly exercise fought out by company and Balpa legal representatives.

PP