Somebody just like you.

Nigel Something

True. Unfortunately seems all our lords and masters want to reduce manning/ rest to the minimum to increase the productivity. Our lot would jump at the chance of 3 man. They tried it but as most of our departures are around midnight the FTLs didn’t quite allow it. We now do a large proportion of our LHs with 2 Second Officers as opposed to a 2 FOs. So the FO just gets the wrong rest and still has to be in the seat for landing! Notwithstanding our experience levels have dropped through the floor.....

I fear for all of us where this is all leading.....

If the pay rise offer of 11% over three years were to go ahead would that apply to new joiners’ salaries too or only existing employees?

Do guys find they have much savings left over every month with the salary being as low as it is?

Being bottom of the seniority list is it not still possible to swap flights once the roster is out and get options in there that you like?

Thanks!

BA don’t do “SOs”. On joining all copilots are fully trained and qualified as RHS for two crew ops. As Wiggy says many LH trips on 777/787/744/ and a few on A380 are operated with two crew. For a new LH FO, people are recruited with sufficient big jet hours to allow them, after the Type Rating to operate on two pilot trips immediately after Line Training as FO.

Thanks for the reply Wiggy :)

does anyone have a copy of the current PP payscale that new joiners sign on that they can paste here?

Thanks!

Correct, an interim measure in times of high recruitment when there is not enough Line Training capacity. BA do not have a Policy of employing semi permanent Cruise only, partially trained SOs.

There are other places to live than London! LGW get very few layovers 2 a month if your lucky. LHR many more. Lots of guys commute from LHR, but to be honest looks like a nightmare to me.

I’m Gatwick based (three years at Heathrow before) and rarely do a day trip in LGW unless it’s called from standby on reserve. However I am senior there and still have to do multiple nights in Gatwick (maybe 10 or so). As others have said not the best base for commuting unless, like me, you live in one of the few nightstop destinations and even then it’s a drag.

The workload gets high all year round too if all you’re doing is bidding for nightstops because, by their nature, they’re mostly six sector single nightstops over two days with long links either side. I was told Gatwick was seasonal and quiet in the winter but that doesn’t apply if you ask Carmen for nightstops. Flew 95 hours in January, my first month there, March was just as bad. A lot of nights in my own bed though!!

I wouldn’t necessarily say that LGW is more likely than LHR as I think we have nearly a full compliment in the RHS here, maybe a few less. According to iBid and looking at the historic compliment, however, it looks like LHR is under by nearly 30 pilots, possibly more. There’ll be many more unfrozen pilots leaving the Airbus from Heathrow next year than Gatwick too.

Gatwick is a far friendlier base and nicer place to work IMHO vs Heathrow, you actually get to know people here and the knob jockeys in the LHS are considerably fewer. The aircraft though are absolutely knackered and the number of MEL items you can be confronted with upon boarding the aircraft for the first time can be frustrating and downright exhausting.

More for anyone considering Gatwick vs Heathrow to be honest rather than the original poster..