No more sim checks till November,current situation.

That's quite good news then....could maybe mean they will start offering courses to those in the pool for 2018 before November.

One thing is for certain, BA do t have the ability to plan for the remainder of the week, let alone the year ahead. You can guarantee they will cock the numbers up by trying to be too tight; the. We will see the floodgates open on recruitment once more. Retirements have started again after a 10year pause.

The retirements have started indeed, not that many though for the next few years, having said that a fairly large number of pilots have put in for par-time which might cause some extra recruitment.

In 2018 the 5 year engagement freeze for those recruited onto the baby bus at the beginning of the previous recruitment bubble is over. Is it fair to presume most recruitment from now on will be for shorthaul vacancies?

Yes Jumbo2 I gather that the retirement numbers are perhaps not as high as some have hoped for..or as some predicted (guilty):\ . There's also I think the sticky issue of the company for some mysterious reason :oh: being slow to honour requests for some of the part time contracts.

Any news from the inside or otherwise?

May be opening again 2nd half of year. Nothing else.

Opening recruitment again? Aren't there 100+ twiddling their thumbs in the pool already?

*shrug*

Just repeating what is on the yammer recruitment section!

Well bearing in mind those of us in the pool who applied long haul were asked if we'd accept a shorthaul offer (to which I said yes); having recruitment open again can only be a good thing surely. Unless of course it's only for 320 type rated only and these people continue to jump above those of us in the pool that are non type rated.

10+ 787s arriving next year and the 350s arriving in 2019. There's still not enough pilots for 2020 with high levels of recruitment apparently. Hopefully good news for those in the hold pool and those wishing to apply.*

*all based on yammer and flying with management.

Yammer is an internal discussion forum / notice board for the whole company....

The latest from the lady who is in charge of all manpower and it's on this weeks flight ops video. "No DEP recruitment for the rest of this year" but she emphasises that's the current plan and is subject to change depending on many factors. The DEP pool is ready for next year.

I know it's not exactly what people want to hear but hopefully it helps keep people sane.

What I read into what was said Bex is that they won't be issuing any start dates to DEP's for the remainder of the year but those guys and girls in the pool will be first in line for jobs in 2018 (which is exactly what they have been told in recent updates). It's still entirely possible and/or probable that recruitment will open later in the year for the rest of the positions available in 2018.

yep that's as I understood it no DEP 2017 but pool for 2018.

No guarantees; that's the quick answer. But hopefully so!

Personally hoping for that scenario, seeing as my hold pool status is valid until the end of October for a call to start in January or February 2018. Fingers crossed and thanks for the update.

Those expiring Autumn 17, are you 320 TR or going for LH positions out of interest?

Non 320, non rated on Boeing. Applied and swimming for LH, but happy to accept SH.

Does anyone know when the internal bidding process opens / closes, and the results are published? I'd guess that'd be a good indication of when the hold pool starts to drain, and if DEP opens up again.

Normally opens around July but results aren't out until Oct at the earliest these days.

But I should imagine the results are known internally with a fair amount of certainty before this date. Therefore requirements for SH/LH will be known and offers made accordingly.

How do you join then and I can pilot the grob tutor

How has the new rostering system and EASA FTL effected a possible new joiner LH? I assume EASA has effected commuters or is that still possible? A couple of years ago I met some Canadians commuting but how is that working out now?

The new roster system isn't in yet, though it's fair to say Bidline "as is" isn't Bidline "as was."......:{

As far as EASA goes people do still travel in from Europe and elsewhere but given it is harder now to "back to back" LH trips roster construction/manipulation through either bidding and/or swapping can be a bit more difficult.

It's not at all harder to back to back. It's just that Lagos Abuja Accra Luanda Riyadh Jeddah and Kuwait have become significantly more senior trips

Ok, maybe rather than "harder" I should have said just fewer attractive options to do so.:ok:

For those commuters who want to eat their cake and have it too? :E

I'll admit it is one of my pet peeves about BA "shorthand" - doesn't everybody at LHR "commute" :E ??? , even if just from Windsor, Slough, Manchester, Edinburgh or beyond???.......I think the general loss of flexibility for everybody was a shame, but we are where we are....

Yes, it's always tickled me that in BA-speak "Do you commute?" means "Do you travel to work using public air transport?"

I wonder what all those other poor souls on the motorway as I drive to work are doing?

In other news, there is about to be some internal movement generated by the releasing of some part-time positions which had been denied. This will create about 35 MPE places, not enough to translate into external recruitment. Next year and the year after, things will ramp up again.

The current market has made thing very difficult for the postings & promotions team, variable part time, unknown retirement levels, network changing their minds on routes. The only sure way you know you are on a new fleet, or have joined, is when you put the gear lever to 'up' for the first time on the aircraft....

2019 possibly but a recent conversation I was having with a member of the P&P team suggested 2018 may only be slightly less quiet than this year. I have to stress though that this is a rumour network after all and who knows? The only certainty is that all these plans change with the wind.

I did 640 hours last year......full time SH. Next month I have three days TASS. Tells a story

I've done marginally under 600 hours Bex! Full time P2 SH. Granted I've done a lot of reserve (half by choice and half those reserve periods were dead quiet) and three weeks of leave in peak summer. Still, low caps are fine by me.

TASS?

Is 650 the norm for BA SH guys? How about LH?

Assuming that is the case (80 ish new joiners) I imagine quite a few expiring in the pool. Does anyone know the situation with that? Are we expected to fully reapply and go through all stages of selection again?

Again Mike don't worry too much about what I've written. That's one person's opinion, there'll be others who will tell you something completely different. I suppose if you do drown there's a chance you may have to resit the whole thing but I'm sure I've heard stories of people in the past who were fished out after drowning and administered the defibrillator (successfully). It depends what mood they're in and how badly they need people I suppose.

TASS is short for a time assignable duty. It's what you're allocated when you're on a blind line and they haven't been able to reach cap with your other rostered duties. It works like a contactable in easyJet, for those who don't know what that is you will be contacted by current ops by 18:00 local at the latest the day before with your duty. If you haven't heard from them put your feet up and have a beer the next day. The only problem is that they prefer to use Time Assignable people before reserve period holders for uncovered work in advance, so it is likely you'll get used. But you're only contactable the day before, not on the day. Hope that's explained it.

I know your intentions are good RexBanner, but I'm not sure who the second paragraph above is aimed at. Surely those in BA already know this and those of us sinking slowly in the pool don't really need to know this until we have, 'put the gear lever to up for the first time on a BA aircraft.'

Three attempts to finally pass BA selection, it'd be seriously frustrating to sink after 18 months. Not sure I'd give it a 4th go.

TASS - TBF to Rex the question was asked by Flyingsaucepan. ...: many ways of thinking about it, my take is it is pre nominated "days off" on your original roster that in reality can be converted into a duty later in the month by the company. Usually given to blindline holders at roster publication to buffer up the credited hours towards CAP or you get clobbered with it if you lose a trip during the month e.g due weather ( if example the LH cancellations last due eastern seaboard snow) you will become TASS, i.e. Available for duty for the days of the lost trip....lots of caveats however, that's the simple version.

Can't talk about SH but 650 sounds low for a Longhauler, I would have thought for most trip line holders it is more likely to be 750 plus on average and we certainly have more than a few bouncing off 900 hours.

While contributors have answered the "letter" of Saucepan's question as to what TASS means (and thanks very much too!), I think we were all hoping for more of a "spirited" answer - how does 640 hrs last year / 3 days TASS on this roster reflect current short haul crewing levels, and from looking at that (and a crystal ball, seaweed, runes or whatever you choose to gaze at) what can we divine about future crewing requirements?

I must admit to being baffled as to why BA would make you start your application from scratch again. You've proved yourself capable and willing to be an asset once, through what must be a costly process to administer, making people go through it again is only going to disenfranchise them, and cost BA time and money? Surely you would drain the pool before opening up any DEP again?

I think the implication is that the current crew complement aren't exactly working at capacity, on SH at least (probably at about 85% maybe?) and by extension that imminent recruitment on SH sounds unlikely. However, that is very much only the current state of play and subject to a whole raft of variables over the course of a couple of years; aircraft arriving in unconfirmed number, aircraft retiring, people retiring, changing fleets, upgrades, part-time, route changes and so on.