It's all very well this part-time, seasonal working but it won't be sustainable in the long-term.

There has been a massive influx of young, single, 'cadets' in recent years with the relatively enomous upturn in the low-cost airline sector and consequential demand for pilots.

Once these young, bright-eyed pilots gain a few years and settle down with a wife and family, the prospect of part-time, seasonal working which seems a 'whiz' today, might not be quite so attractive when the realities of life finally hit them squarely in the face in future years.

Whether Jet2 will suffer the same demographic 'time-bomb' that may face the likes of Ryanair only time will tell.

KR

FOK

Has anyone got an idea how many guys Jet2 have taken on to both the 737 and 757 Fleets? Is the selection still ongoing or has that approach been binned due a lack of takers so they are going do the agency route?

I saw another shiny ad in FI from Jet 2 asking for Boeing drivers. Surely they can't still be looking for fresh applicants? I'd have thought that in the current depression every unemployed 73/75/76 driver in the known world would already have applied. What is jet2 playing at?:confused:

Jet2 Reply
 

Had an inteview in October and despite a couple of telephone calls asking whether any decisions had been made heard nothing since.

Good luck to everyone still waiting for a reply.

Phoned them up a couple of years ago out of curiosity and was instantly invited down for a chat/interview based on my experience (I'm a 737 TRE). During said chat/interview i was told by some div called RL in no uncertain terms that I would be at the back of the queue for training slots and who did I think I was.

They were clearly on the trawl to see who was out there. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, especially if you're already a trainer.

Jet2 need to let people know what the score is. Power sets story above shows there is a history of this approach from Jet2.

Quite a sad industry we scratch around in these days.:*

RL is now the chief pilot of jet2, he is known to be quite blunt and direct, so if someone turned up at an interview and expected to not only get a direct entry command but also a direct entry TRE / TRI etc i expect he would be told where to go! Although we do need some part time direct entry captains we dont need direct entry line trainers, TRE /TRI, these slots have been recently advertised internally. If you wish to join us and climb the ladder to training captain by merit then your welcome to apply, if you wish to jump direct to the top then good luck applying elswhere.

My impression of RL was that he was a nice, friendly person who was realistic about trying to make jet2 a place where someone would want a career whilst also keeping costs down in the recession. I think the 70% permanent contract is a good idea. Certainly better than what some other more "orange" operators out there are doing...

I heard last week of a B757 applicant who was told by HR that he had met their standards and had passed the screening but that people living locally were considered first...anybody else been told the same?

PFO 6 weeks after the interview.

How many guys have been offered a contract and accepted it? Any further interviews ahead?

One would assume there must be following two half page adds in FI
in the last month................Strange given the number of knock-backs.
P'haps they just want to sweap-up some ex GSM guys for future plans
(maybe some of them went to DXB already) Who knows or indeed gives
a !!!!! unless you REALLY want to work there.

Rgds
The Moss:ok:

Are there any 737 pilot bases from which night mail flights are not operated?

leeds bradford and manchester are not night mail bases.

That was quick - thank you very much!

You can add Blackpool to that list.

Shaman

I might be wrong but the Post Office "Night" flights are not exactly hard work, quick NCL-EMA-NCL. :\

Thanks; I had assumed that the flights involved leaving around 2300 to somewhere, hanging around in an airport chair for 4 or 5 hours, and arriving back at around 0600.

Taking into account these mail flights, approximately how many "up all night" flights could a 737 pilot expect to do each month?

The RM night flights tend to only involve flying 2 sectors. Normally around 40mins turnaround. One BFS-EMA flight stays in EMA for 2-3hrs before returning to BFS (as far as I know) but that is it. Most flights will have you back at base by 1-2am.

If things go pear shaped with the fleet, you might end up flying a few more sectors in a night, but that is very rare.

Pretty much none, unless things go wrong, like the recent weather probs. As has been indicated the Mail flights are a doddle:ok:, you generally report between 8pm and 10pm, and are generally tucked up by 2am:D, or in the late night bar somewhere if you prefer:D:D:D.

No sponsor and Johnny,

Thank you very much indeed for the information - very encouraging.

Now, I wonder why Jet2 is looking for 737 captains and for which bases and are the jobs really permanent or just for this summer season; hmmmmmmmm

they need captains due to expansion, I believe perm contracts are available but part time 70%, work the summer have the winter off but paid 70% of salary all year round.

Expansion!!! with a 30 per cent pay cut for pilots, hmmmm, Expansion for who's benifit? Stick together. If you all turned around and said NO!, who are they going to get to fly their aeroplanes....today? Nobody, they would be out of business in weeks, a long time before 'off the peg', 'growing on trees' replacements are found. Stand up to these bullies and so called 'managers' and let them know who they are dealing with,you would after all be expected to rise to any occasion in the aircraft. So stop pussyfooting about and show them what cards you really hold. Don't let a few 'here today gone tomorrow' spivs ruin this industry.

1.6vs. Your opinion is valid, and understandable, but I take it that you haven't been out of work for a year with a mortgage to pay, and a family to support (OK, I don't have a family to support). If I had been offered a position at Jet Two I would have asked for the permanent contract, but would have accepted the part time one, and would not have been surprised if I'd been dumped at the end of the season. One of the things that is in short supply at airlines is loyalty from the management, and another thing is cohesive action from pilots as a group. If one of us were to turn down a job because we didn't like the Ts and Cs there would be 40 behind us to trample us in the rush to take them however blind we may consider them. The only real winners in this industry are the owners. It's a bit like the mills in the 18th century or the mine owners in the 19th.

And another thing that really gets up my hooter, are these greedy captains(more than likely retired B.A.) on final salary pensions, that take the jobs and livelyhood from those less fortunate, resulting in the stifiling of F/O upgrades and poorer T&Cs for all. They just want to fly, they don't need paying, after all, is this not how airlines treat the newbees!!

Is this recruitment for what ever contracts offered still alive? If guys have been turning the jobs down, how many have taken a post? As mentioned earlier if people are saying no to the 70% deal are there now talks behind closed doors for a better deal or does it look like a situation of contract pilots from all corners of the globe taking the jobs? How many 757 drivers got an offer and accepted it. It seems more focussed on the 737 at present. I thought the company had eyes on more 757 and even 767 airframes for the future.

All the best to everyone hunting a job.:ok:

1.6, there is NO 30% pay cut for pilots at jet2, the perm contracts being offered are for 70% PART TIME, for that 70% PART time work you get 70% of full time salary paid over 12 months. Those on 100% contracts have not had their pay cut either. Get your facts right dear boy! if you dont want a part time contract then look someplace else for a full time contract.

mind you with comments in the past like "Jet2 have issued a profit warning. The only thing that keeps you lot of premadonnas in your fanciful jobs, is a bunch of truck drivers. -"Fowler Welch Coolchain" for the totally 'ignorant. " show just how much you DONT know about J2, your obviously very bitter about this company.....turn you down did they?

Thin end of the wedge, you just keep rolling over and see where you end up.Do you still operate out of those ghastly portacabins in Leeds.Embarrassing eh!

Any more news or rumours regarding the Jet2 recruitment?

In Blackpool it's called a chalet!

My portacabin's better than yours, good grief!

1.6vs, did you ever leave the school playground.

:ugh:

As expected, the usual tirade from the F/lap O/perators. Know it all, know xxxx all.

I couldn't agree more. They take the pension and take another job and do not enjoy doing it all. If only they'd make way for those that not only enjoy the job but need it.

As always, a simple rule to apply to airlines recruitment - if they need you, they'll pay for you. At the moment they are taking the pi55 out of you because they know all pilots are on the back foot. Train drivers, post men, fire fighters - they all earn more than many pilots - why? Because they have a proper union. End of. We all know the Jet2 contract on offer is appauling.

If the only way the airline can make margin is by paying their pilots very little then they are in the long term in trouble - I promise you - what they are doing isn't clever, it's not business savvy - it's desperate, it's pathetic and it is delaying the inevitable. I will certainly be putting money on with the bookies that this airline will not be around in the next few years.

And how do they claw back some of that margin? Desperate pilots who have nothing else. At the moment they are 'surviving' and that is their tack. Think of the market they deal with - Ryanair are far, far cheaper for more or less the same service on much newer, more economic aircraft - I know who I'd fly with.

1.6vs,

I've took the bait too!

You obviously have an issue with Jet2 in some way shape or form. Personally, I don't find them too bad. There are better operators (ie t & C's), but what you and several others need to remember is Jet2 (as an airline not a frieght operation) is comparatively VERY new.

There are and will be many changes going on, many new faces and lots of experience joining us. Yes things are not perfect, but show me an airline where it is.....hmmmmm struggling eh:ugh:

Management are responding to the current climate, ie 70% contracts etc...It will change, it has to! Their very ethos and if you like mission statement for pilots is life style. They are offering northern bases for northern pilots, or anyone who would like to live in the beautiful North of England, Scotland or N.Ireland..(and of course EMA now).

If you have a gripe with Jet2 it is your prerogative, but please don't come on here slagging off the only operator set to expand and recruit in the UK this year, it is an insult to your fellow pilots struggling to make ends meet at the end of a dole que!

To those set to join us, welcome!

Jet2 has some of the most proffesional and fun crews I have ever worked with. Together, and with a little help along the way there is no reason why Jet2 can't be the preffered airline to work for - Enjoy!:ok:

Not sure about that. Once it's in it's in.

Supply and demand - simple!

The Beak
 

Thank God, someone that can see further than the end of their nose.Wake up the rest of you. you're the cockle pickers of the sky.

It would seem all those people who have been told "thanks but no thanks" have come on here to have a pop at the company how sad. Now 1.6vs what are your motives to agitate ? To create disturbance amongst the workforce ? Ahh no, i know what it is, its to save us from ourselves, us poor "cockle pickers" in the sky. Well thanks very much but we do not need saving we are happy sat there, living close to our homes, flying a stable and regular roster pattern, having been offered (not forced) flexible working conditions, being paid regularly in a friendly fun flying environment, having enough leave over Winter and Summer to spend to time with our loved ones and most of us sleeping in our own beds 99% days of the year. Hang on when you describe it like that its a very attractive deal.

So 1.6vs you hide behind your name stand up and tell us why are you throwing the grenades over the wall ? If we understand your motives we may see why you feel so altruistic in helping us poor hardpressed pilots.

The flying employement market is driven by supply and demand, at the moment there is an over supply of pilots sure enough it will change as it has done over the last 15-20 years and the cycle will become under supply again. Then terms and conditions will improve.

STS: you have a very rose tinted, and over optimistic view of the resolve of pilots as a work force group. Pilots would not vote with their feet once the economy recovers if their T&Cs didn't recover in line. Had I been offered a job with Jet Two I would have haggled hard to make sure that I got the full time contract because I would bet a penny to a pound of the stuff from the golden rocking horse that it would have been very unlikely that there would be any offers to move from part time to full time at the end of the season.

I think that 1.6VS has some sort of chip on his shoulder, and I'm not sure what his agenda is or where it came from, but in essence he has a point.

From what I learnt of Jet Two it seemed to be a company worth working for, and I couldn't give two hoots whether they worked out of a jumble of portacabins or Westminster Palace. They pay a reasonable salary, and they pay on time, and there seem to be lots of other good reasons to work for them, but I feel that no company can hold you to ransom hiding behind the "it's the economy" excuse without some quid pro quo for later on.

You cannot pay part time employees a pro rata salary: it has to be proportionally higher than the full time rate. To take the current example if you ask someone to work from March till October (8 months, 75% of the year) you need to pay them more than 75% of the salary. You leave them high and dry after 8 months with not opportunity to get part time or temporary employment in the remaining 3 months (assuming that both the employer, and employee expect to come together again for the next season). I would have expected to have been offered around 85% or 90% of the salary for 75% of the roster. That way the company has a reasonably good chance of getting someone back who has been trained to their SOPs, and reduces their training cost for the next season in that they wouldn't have to get a new entrant to the company needing company conversion training.

If I had been offered part time, and not full time would I have taken it? Probably not. What would I have done instead? Left aviation. Fortunately I have been offered full time contract with another airline on better salary than Jet Two could manage.

It's a shame that as soon as someone has something 'less than good' to say about an organisation they are automatically branded as having failed the selection into that organisation.

you have a point beak, i think he / she just wants to stir for the sake of it with no real substance behind the bile.