I know EASA doesn’t allow them. You asked me to explain how EASA changed things so I did.

Looking at the 777/787 DEP recruitment, Is there any reason why BA don’t offer a LGW base on the 777? I believe there will be 14 aircraft based at Gatwick this Summer, so it’s a sizeable operation.

Given the destinations, some longer trips and the fact it’s not LHR, this would certainly be an attractive prospect in an airline that, by most accounts on this thread, is quickly running out of attractive prospects.

Unless you are going to crew it with pilots on reduced T&Cs I don’t really see what’s in it for the company...it’s not as if Flight Ops has problems getting people to volunteer to do the work.

There are plenty on the 777 fleet who bid specifically for the LGW work and by a combination of both bidding and swopping trips are in reality pretty much Gatwick based.

Hi, now that DEP has opened up for LGW on 320, would anyone be able to give me an example roster.
The few trips they do and the pros and cons of choosing Lgw over Lhr.
Many thanks

I’ve been waiting since mid December for some stage 2 dates to be offered. Anyone know what’s going on ?

That depends:

Trip lengths..anything from the odd/rare one day outliers, most trips are 3,4 or 5 day, max at the moment is the SYD trip (currently on the 777 ) which touches 9 days (departs evening of day one, gets back into LHR AM of day 9).

Time off between generally a minimum of two clear days, though in certain circumstances with certain trips it may be possible to opt to reduce time at base to a local night..OTOH the aforementioned Sydney trip demands 4 days/5 local nights off at base due to FTL constraints.

In very simplistic terms in a month with no leave embedded you possibly end up with 5 or 6 of the short (e.g. 2 or three day) trips, or say 3 or 4 of the longer trips.

1. There is nil positioning. The company/Union agreement, approved by the CAA, is that if you have a LGW trip on your roster you make your own way to Crew report at Gatwick, i.e. your report is at LGW. FWIW a significant number of Longhaul pilots live around the Gatwick area anyway and for them a Gatwick report is easier than heading around the M25 to LHR.

2. Yes there is an agreement for a hotel room (but no allowances) if the individual requests it, but again because many of the “locals” elect to bid for the LGW work I’m not how many actually take the option.

I’m not sure why there not being a Gatwick stand-alone 777 base is a deal breaker for you....there is nothing to stop you applying to BA and seeing if you can get an offer of the T7...if that worked out then you’d be in a position to bid for the Gatwick work, as long as it continues.

LGW and LHR are less than 45 miles away from each other and much less than 90 minutes apart most of the time (M25 dependent of course). Plus 777 Pilots do not report at Heathrow they report straight to Gatwick so there is no impact on duty times or FTLs. Anyone at the bottom of the P2 List hoping to get more than one Gatwick trip (at least pre swaps) every three to four months or so is likely to be disappointed.

Fairly straightforward C212 you’ll get a combination of somewhere between 3-4 trips each month. The fleet has it’s Western Cowboys doing the LA’s and SFO’s Chinese Barons doing SIN and HKG’s and the golfers doing the JNB’s. There is a lot of swapping going on under JSS. As a DEP you won’t get the variety that the Boeing’s do or the Cinderella (A350) fleet eventually. That can be good or bad depending on what you want to do.

Ah, thanks, as in the specific Box A tables in Bidline rules?..(.there’s also the one hour non-control NCP, )