So has anyone told recruitment that there is a hiring freeze ? Roles still being advertised and upcoming assessments this week yet to be canned ...

TBH I have only heard of a freeze by way of that one post upthread, nothing elsewhere that corroborates that..

Being charitable one can only guess the situation is evolving so quickly, and it’s still only Monday PM............

Then again AFAIK nobody on the line pilot side of things has been informed about the widely reported route cutting that SKY and BBC have reported this evening...(rumour has it cabin crew were told details by e-mail within minutes.)

Sounds like “ Ops normal” as far as communication between pilots and their management goes.

To be fair I did have a notification in eMaestro when I updated my roster for times for my logbook. What more could I possibly want ?

:E..........

Just gave them a call and they said they’ve not been told anything new so expect the course to remain the same date etc. If anything changes we’ll get emailed.
Apparently they’re honouring contract offers already been made according to a BALPA source. That being said if anyone hears anything to the contrary please share, still considering begging my current company to accept a notice withdrawal...

Nervous times, keep the faith and worry about it if/when it happens

If the email that I’ve seen is genuine (seen, not sent, crucial difference) and I’ve no reason at the moment to think it’s not, then anyone with a confirmed start date is as secure now as they were before Corona Virus.

And Given the the amount of uncovered trips in March for 320 FO, At this stage I can’t see why we’d stop recruitment. We’re a long way undercrewed.

Perhaps we’ve seen different emails, but as far as I’m aware there’s definitely a recruitment freeze (operational and non-operational) for the time being.

But you’re right, we certainly were massively undercrewed, who knows now with the reduction/redistribution of flights

From a CC perspective a trainer I was flying with told me that all training other than non essential training was cancelled. Recruitment and promotions were suspended.

From a flight crew perspective there has been no official word. The rumour is the 320 fleet is going to have to work harder to ensure the slots are flown as long haul flights are reduced. I believe we have to fly the slot 80% of the time?

Is this all a overreaction? Hopefully summer and a level head will see a cautious but more measured response from the public

The only freeze message I am currently aware of is that Mixed Fleet Customer Service Managers (CSMs) have allegedly been told there is a freeze..now that’s only anecdotal since I haven’t seen the message myself and if it does exist the context might be a freeze only on Mixed Fleet Recruitment.

(edit to add: Whilst was typing bex seems to have possibly confirmed that’s the story)

Re slots - I believe given the circumstances there’s a move Internationally to produce an agreement to protect airport slots (any airport) regardless of whether they are flown or not....frankly it wouldn’t look good if aircraft were flown around empty simply to slot sit. I think such agreements have been made in the past (possibly post 9/11).

http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2020/...-lose-it-rule/

I have a start date in May. Contract signed and notice given. I rang recruitment line this afternoon who advised me that my start date will still go ahead. I do have a mate who has been told he was successful through sim and placed in hold pool but there will be no more start dates given for the foreseeable.
I fully understand my response from recruitment today is only valid for as long as it’s not.

If there is a freeze it’s a bizarre way of going about it. Roles continue to be advertised on the external website (including a new role advertised today for DEC at CityFlyer) and assessments for DEP going ahead tomorrow as planned!

What does CityFlyer recruitment have to do with proving or disproving a freeze on BA recruitment though?

As far as I am aware, BA have never failed to honour a signed employment contract, so I wouldn’t be at all worried if I had given my notice to a previous employer after signing a contract with BA.

I wasn’t trying to prove or disprove anything, just adding my tuppence’ worth to the discussion on a rumours forum. The facts are BA are still advertising externally for a number of roles, and assessments (for DEP at least) continue to run. Of course that could change in 24 hours...

what’s the old disclaimer, past performance is no guarantee of future performance? There’s nothing remotely honourable about our current management. At any level. The simple fact is though that we’re undercrewed, there’s no doubt about that. It remains to be seen how much the flying schedule changes will affect that. You’d certainly hope/expect that the guys given start dates are fairly safe and that most of the internal courses will go ahead as planned. As far as I’m aware the new aircraft are still coming this year, even if the 787-10 is being continually pushed back (that was the case pre Coronavirus).

From what I’ve heard all current offers remain,
no change there. If you have an offer you are safe. Future opportunities have to be signed off via CEO/CFO.

This rings true from what I’ve seen

Reuters report a snip interview with WW regarding aircraft orders. They remain firm on all orders and see the coronavirus as a temporary issue, and won't do anything to jeopardize the long term business direction. I would presume this would include making sure the crews are ready as planned.

Tell that to all the cabin crew that signed "world class" contracts for start dates this year, only to be told a month before starting that they would be on mixed fleet contracts instead (on a much lower basic pay). BA certainly have form in not honouring signed employment contracts.

The only time I’ve heard of airlines pulling job offers in the last few years, is before a contract is signed and from people practically in hold pools. I know a few cadets who had offers from RYR withdrawn last year due to their “restructuring” late summer. However, this was shortly after the assessment outcome, and as far as I know it was a pre-offer with a “rough” start date and no contract at that time. Given the typical “we’ll keep you on file, and let you know when we start running courses again” lip service. A regional airline did the same with cadets when they hit a bit of rough air, except they were told to PFO.

I’m very confident those with signed contracts and start dates have nothing to worry about whatsoever. And I think the odds of those in the pool are just as well. It will just be a few anxious months of waiting for BA to pull their finger out and get back on track after this fiasco.

I’m still waiting for the sim, so can’t see that happening until the Summer. No response from recruitment.

Got to stay positive. Just not tested positive for Coronavirus.