They also are having to contend with the overheads of establishing an operation at present. That can't be cheap, the profit will come imho once they bed in and learn where increased load factor or prices are tolerable.

Price hikes in fuel will impact the whole industry and result in price hikes, the low cost I expect will be relative to existing traditional long haul carriers. If everyone hikes by 50 quid a fare for increased prices, the traditional airlines will be in just a bad situation. Hedging fuel prices only works in your favour for so long before options expire, so that can only work in the sort to medium term.

The only concern is bankruptcy or someone loss leading, similar to what has happened to NOR SH at BHX I believe. Question is, with 2 billion down, are they now too big to fail?

Read about Braniff and Air Europe and then compare to what’s going on at Norwegian. The parallels are staggering. They’re over stretching themselves going for market share ahead of actually establishing profitability. There’s a staggering amount of red ink all over their balance sheet. By their own admission in their latest accounts they only have guaranteed capitalisation for the next three quarters! It isn’t just related to growing the business. I will take any bet you like that they won’t be here in five to ten years time.

Don't go giving them any ideas!!!

As far as I know, the last of the 767's have an issue which means they MUST be in their final resting place by 0001 hrs on 1st Jan 2019. Up until that point I guess it's feasible to use the fleet wherever they see fit but the remaining 7 aircraft are all short haul config and not etops. Maybe a stop gap for a few months for some high density short haul perhaps but something more definite must be in the pipeline for slots that valuable. Maybe more work for the triple bearing in mind the FW's onto the fleet.

Just for clarity, as posted at the top is it BA/IAG who have secured the slots or IAG? The former would assume IAG have secured the slots for BA.

Reports on Reuters et al would suggest it's IAG so I guess any one of the group could benefit from them. I'd imagine the most likely to use them would be BA but you never know with IAG.

How many slots did Monarch have to sell?

I bet neither had the pseudo backing of a sovereign wealth fund worth trillions looking for long term investment opportunities on the behalf of their nationals though!

https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/

I read somewhere that Monarch had 18 slot pairs at Gatwick. I cannot remember where I read it because it was a while back, and so I am not sure of its accuracy.

It’s ok guys I’m sure Level will snap those up

Couldn’t be further from the truth.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.ind...261.html%3famp
If this isnt hope for those of us in the pool then nothing will be!

Anyone have any idea or indications within BA if this would cause enough of a requirement to reopen DEP applications?

As of last year, there were circa 300 people in the hold pool, and we’ve had our expiration dates extended twice, so I’d say it would be unlikely in the foreseeable future.

But how many in the pool are 320 rated? And how many of those are still even interested in BA? Was any of this expansion planned when our dates were extended?

I know it's easy (and frankly, less disappointing) to be pessimistic but on the contrary I'd say this is the most positive it's looked in terms of recruitment potential for a good while. 28% unplanned expansion at Gatwick must mean good news for at least a few.

Valid point. Many of the people I know in the holdpool have moved on and are no longer interested in BA. Even more with no interest in shorthaul. Does anybody have reliable info about the number of DEP swimmers? I’ve heard as low as 80 and as high as 300.

That question was asked of a manager elsewhere earlier today and the answer was that as yet there was no change to the current plans. Of course that could change tomorrow and in any event it's obviously not just a case of backsides on seats, you need the equipment to use the slots.

I think a few things are certain and that is, JSS will mean that the current pilot establishment will be “Optimised” or worked to fatigue and this will mean less pilots are needed. With the plans that probably means FPPs will fill the gaps by pilots leaving the 320 fleet. DEP......search me. Gatwick slots I assume were not accounted for but with 25 NEOs arriving to replace the older 319’s it is not hard to imagine those being sent to Gatwick to slot sit. Where do the pilots come from? Rated DEP one would assume in order to get it up and running quickly whilst maintaining so level of experience. If that does happen the PRIAM result go out the window. Simply put, the slots have to be used, aircraft need to fill them and pilots need to fly them. My two pence which is probably completely wrong as it’s so simple.

A friend in the company scoured the relevant Yammer threads and came up with the following numbers. So fairly reliable, based on (I think) a reasonable assumption of success rate in the sim:

• 446 sim assessments in 2016.
• Based on 2 out of 3 success rate, that has ~300 in the pool
• ~30% of whom are 320 rated, so ~90 rated swimmers.
• A handful of whom started with the company in Jan/Feb this year - someone will know the exact number.

As you mentioned, there will be a number who have moved on to VS or the Middle East or elsewhere, or who have stayed put and picked up a command, or who perhaps already have a command and have no interest in joining the short haul fleet in the RHS. Some will be Monarch guys who are now perhaps commited to elsewhere.

How many there are in one of those situations... your guess is as good as mine. Personally, I know four guys who would fit one of those criteria. And to be fair, BA won’t even know until they start making offers.

Don’t forget there are 777 and 747 rated pilot’s too in the pool.

Quite. Many assume all recruitment if any would be for the A320 only. Answer is, we really don't know. But potentially all Airbus positions could be filled with FPPs/ white tail cadets. If (and a big if) there's a need for longhaul DEPs then these could go to Boeing rated.

Like others have mentioned I know several in the pool who have gone off to the likes of Virgin and Thomson/TUI and seem rather happy with life there.