There is some truth to the rumours
 

I cam confirm that during the Pilot Careers Live event last Saturday Lindsay Craig announced that for the first time BA would be accepting DEP's to the A380. I personally thought this meant TR applicants from EK for example but I guess not.

The quality of applicant from EK far outstrips that from any regional uk carrier. Why would BA not want to tap into a workforce of rated A380/B777 crews , especially from a competitor?
Even an internal BA candidate from the A320 could not possibly have the experience of a EK A380 sfo? I heard that there are several young, high time
EK captains throwing in their lot to the BA application. Why not, they are rich, by uk standards, and young enough to still have time for command in 3-6 years.

Good luck guys :ok:

Globally

Without going into the nitty gritty, whys and wherefores, associated rumours, allegations and the undoubtedly true tales of woe there certainly have been some problems/course failures associated with conversions from the likes of the 744 to the 380. I know with some degree of certainty that that has led to a degree of reluctance by some to bid for the 380 (most especially from those who have zero previous Airbus experience).

I'd also add that the other factor might be that the other Long Haul Fleets perhaps offer a greater range of destinations and/or variety....at the moment at least it does look like in BA the 380 will always be a small fleet.

Wiggy it does seem like it is starting to cream off some of the best destinations though, not much variety but good in what it does (KSFO, KLAX, KMIA etc). But it's whatever floats your boat I guess.

Rex..As you rightly say it's whatever floats your boat - TBH the KMIA nightstop never floated mine...:8. With a fleet of (?)12 there's plenty of goodies left for the other fleets.

The issue continues to be training capacity. And a delivery schedule for the 787 that is only going to cause problems crewing the fleet.

I'd say this is as good a time as there has ever been to join BA as a DEP onto almost every LH fleet if you have the hours. Frustrating for frozen SH P2s but when the time comes there will be the bonus of having *some* seniority and not starting at the very bottom of the list.

And retirements start again in 2016....

Guys I tried searching for this on the various previous pages and couldn't find it, if I missed it my bad..

Can anyone please tell me if one joins tomorrow on the A380 as FO (or any long haul fleet) what would be the typical net salary per month? Just net figure including sector pay and everything else, in your pocket, evry month..

Would about £4500 be accurate?


Thanks very much

That would be accurate if you are just putting in the basic pension contributions

Hi Guys,

I have a query... I had applied for 'First Officer' back in November which was apparently mainly for the A320 fleet. In light of the new opening for 'Long Haul', would one automatically be considered for that too?

(I am an FO with extensive Boeing long haul experience (B747/B777))

Also, just to float an idea... What is the approx time to command nowadays considering mass retirement and flux in the company at the moment. I can imagine that time to command on the 747/777 is long but what about on a small fleet like the A380 where perhaps not all the existing FOs have the relevant experience for upgrade...

Cheers!

It's always difficult to accurately predict time to LH command, but the short answer - there is no quick way of achieving it. Fleets like the A380 will never be short of command bidders.

If you join now you would have 4000ish pilots ahead of you and the top 1400 or so are senior enough for a LH command with current fleet sizes and planned expansion. In reality very few of that group will retire in any great numbers within the next 15 years or so. And once they have thrown in the towel you will still need to rise at least another 1000 places from your 4000+ starting seniority in joining. I reckon at least 20 years to Long Haul captain if you joined next week, but it really is a guess, Wiggy and others may have better perspective on this.

And bear in mind when the 2011 intake joined most reckoned on maybe 10 years to a LGW SH command and more like 15 for LHR - it turned out to be 4 years for both. But SH really is a different kettle of fish!

I do not know where this myth has come from, there is no mass retirement. The age legislation changed in 2006 which meant that the retirement age changed from 55 to 65. It is not yet 2016 and that means those at the top have been there for nearly 10 years now, the reality BA have seen is that people have stayed on till 65 so we have only seen very limited retirement since 2006. Retirements will start to increase after Oct next year but even then it will not be huge, there is the cadet bulge of the 90s which means that in the top 1000 there are over 700 pilots less than 50 years old. They will stay there for the next 15 years or more. Yes there will be retirements but time to command on LH will be many years. SH is a real variable, and is at the moment less than 5 years - but BA is very dynamic and any global event can change things very quickly.

Dihaz


The current projected numbers from the internal bid show the 380 as being rather popular. Since BA still allows internal transfers I'm afraid fleet size and the experience of F/Os currently on the fleet doesn't really enter into time to command.

Most of those currently going into the LHS of the 380 will be captains moving from short haul, the rest will be off other Long Haul fleets (Captains and senior SFOs). I can't see that changing any time soon so I really don't think joining BA on the 380 with bags of experience is going to give a fast track to command.

There's plenty of bidders for the A380. I think every one in the RHS are SFOs with plenty of relevant experience.

The courses for Jan and Feb have just been published, and there are lots of command courses starting in January!

BA already has several hundred of those, all waiting patiently for their LH command, some for over 18 years....

That is the BA way, you wait for your turn, what you have done before is largely irrelevant.

That is how it works I'm afraid. How miffed will you be if that happens, so you serve your five year freeze on the A320, put in your bid for long haul, and discover that a brand new DEP buddy gets a position on a long haul fleet and you are told you have to be retained on the A320 due to a lack of training capacity? Yes, that happens too I'm afraid.

fly4more

As my colleagues have said, rightly or wrongly that's a facet of how the BA system works ( another gem is having stacks of seniority but being stuck on a dying fleet). Even if, for whatever reason, you can't change fleet you're ahead on seniority and will be above the later joiners when you do eventually switch.

I'd look on the bright side - at least these days with the likes of pprune you can make yourself aware of the potential pitfalls before signing on the line.

Having had exactly this, being non rated with thousands of hours on Boeings. I would not have done it any other way. Getting in a month earlier rather then later would make a difference of at least 30 places on the seniority list at the moment! LH would probably have given a slightly easier lifestyle initially, but being already over 1/3 down the fleet seniority list I already have control about my working lines.

Long shot but does anyone know the order in which you are put into the hold pool? Is it done by the date of your sim or when you were notified of the result?

I'm just wondering because there is a possible scenario in which you received your assessment result after someone who'd been sim checked at a later date than you simply due to circumstances in the office at the time.

Rex, I do not know the answer to your question but whatever the answer, is there anything you can do about it? Do people even get extracted from the hold pool in order of entry or is it based on experience or type ratings held etc.? You cannot influence any of it so the answer is irrelevant. All you can do is be patient and see what happens. Why worry about it or upset yourself if the answer is not to your liking?