No it has nothing to do with the trippling of the weekend points. The graph was from just before the weekend points got trippled.

Since the first day of the introduction of JSS I’ve had 3 weekends off and 2 of those were because of holidays, the other one I worked every other weekend that month I already made cap during those trips.

I’m with you wiggy, I don’t think it has any effect. But as somebody who rather does his shopping during the week and were the other half works shifts as well it is a nice added bonus to avoid the reserve periods.

I’ve definitely changed my bid to allow more weekend work, top 10% on my fleet so have the choice fortunately. Its been emphasised it’s a temporary measure, so if I don’t need a weekend off specifically over the summer I’m working to gain the points before the rules change again.

Would be very surprised if that’s true. More people due to leave the fleet later in the year to the A350 and Heathrow especially is already undermanned in the RHS. Maybe that’s for non type rated perhaps?

Last comms from AK on the Yammer recruitment forum suggested short haul start dates in the autumn.

Don’t take my words as gospel but the manpower situation would suggest that Airbus FOs are going to be needed sooner rather than later. Remember seeing that yammer post a couple of months ago now that start dates would not be issued over the summer but would recommence in the Autumn.

As far as the bases go I’m in a good position to comment as I did three years up the road in Heathrow and started at Gatwick in January. It depends what you’re after really, I came down to Gatwick for very specific reasons because I live in and commute from Jersey and was tired of trudging up and down the M25 prior to and after a block of work plus we nightstop in Jersey so, with my seniority here, am spending a lot more nights in my own bed nowadays.

Gatwick is hands down a friendlier and more welcoming base. The Eurofleet anti pilot agenda does not exist here so cabin crew do go out of their way to keep you fed and watered (has led to me putting on more than a few pounds though!) and actually start conversations with you. It’s amazing that something as trifling as that raised eyebrows in my first couple of weeks in Gatwick. The base is much smaller so it’s more of a community, you always see people you know and can say hello to in the FOB (briefing room).

The Captains are generally lovely to fly with and a bit more chilled out here than up the road, probably because they fly with guys with no experience all the time here so aren’t immediately on the defensive as soon as they see a two striper. It’s a more seasonal base so summers are manic and winters much quieter (although with reference to a previous post I didn’t experience that this winter due to the work that I bid for, Jersey nightstops which are all two day sixes with long links usually). As there’s only three nightstops time away from base is limited and therefore take home pay can be significantly lower than Heathrow where there are more nightstops and tours available.

Heathrow has JSS for bidding and Gatwick has Carmen. Carmen is a bit kinder to junior pilots so I gather, it tries to give at least some satisfaction to the junior guys and girls. It does have some serious flaws and limitations though and you have to get to know the ways to trick it into giving you what you what, but it will almost always be at the expense of something you want less. Life in a nutshell I guess!

So it really depends what you want. Gatwick only has three nightstops; JER, GLA & EDI (rumours of more coming possibly NAP and TFS but I’ll believe that when I see it). So if you want to be experiencing cities in Europe, nightstopping and earning better money go to Heathrow. You’ll have more nights in your own bed in Gatwick for sure.

Be aware though that reserve periods are much longer in LHR (21 days) and you’ll do them frequently for your first couple of years. The longest reserve period in Gatwick is 6 days. The flying in Gatwick can be a bit more challenging too if you like that as Heathrow is mainly ILS to ILS whereas there’s more destinations with non precision circling stuff in LGW, having said that a lot of them are now replaced by RNAV visuals with coded waypoints which is great for safety but has taken a lot of the fun and challenge out of it (I’m looking at you, Nice).

Best of luck with it whatever you decide and maybe see you on the line one day.

For 350/380 you would need to be current Airbus. 320 experience is most common for DEP’s on those fleets.

With hundreds of P2s being unfrozen next year and obviously airbus qualified it would be an interesting move by BA to take DEPs onto the 380 or 350...

Personally my bid is to remain shorthaul (top 20 percent) but I imagine there would be a lot of gnashing of teeth if there are large numbers of DEPs long haul.

heard the same last night from an easyJet skipper who has been flying with a load who are working their notice with start dates on the A350. I’ll withhold my true feelings on that due to pprunes policy on profanity. This company just gets worse and worse.

If you are frozen on type, you are frozen on type. How can you say the company is getting worse and worse when so many hundreds of long haul DEPs have been recruited onto long haul ahead of frozen internal pilots just in the last few years alone? As far as I am aware, there has been no change in policy.

I’m not talking about myself (indeed I’m frozen) I’m talking about the many people ahead of me who have valid bids this year (and as Icanseeclearly and Jaffo320 have said it’s in the hundreds) and are being bypassed again by Long Haul DEP. This has an inevitable knock on to the RHS of the Airbus where the people sitting there may well be moving up the MSL but are stagnating in their current position on the P2 Airbus list. Post JSS this is incredibly important. Hence my comments.

Are we saying there are currently unfrozen FOs who meet all the current requirements for the A350, being denied moves? As for the hundreds unfreezing next year; I do not believe any current offers will be for next year’s intake, so we will have to wait a while yet before worrying about that.

It does indeed cost money, but agreements cost money, as do salaries. Training will probably be a nightmare next year with lots of jumbos leaving and A350s arriving. Plenty of shorthaul FOs will be denied moves to long haul, but if I were a betting man, I would wager it will be because the vast majority of P350s will come from current 747 FOs.