Also I understand there is no seniority list but how are commands actually prioritised? I mean if you have several hundred people command ready but only 10 slots what method is in place for deciding who gets it and who doesn't? Plus with Brexit, expansion slowing down, and a lower attrition rate is there any talk of command times extending beyond the 2 or 3 often quoted?

There is effectively seniority based on date of command application. You enter the 'process' at 2000 factored hours and that secures your position on the command list. You then apply during the annual command 'application window' if you are interested and specify bases that you will accept. Obviously if you will only accept EDI or MXP then you will wait until you are top of that base transfer list, so you may well wait 5 + years... If you will accept LGW or any base, you will get something as soon as you meet the hours requirements in all probability.

Depends on experience. Depending on your hours you'll either join as SO, FO or SFO.
SO basic £41,000 no sector pay
FO basic £49,000 plus sector pay @ £18.74 per nominal sector
SFO basic £59,000. All subject to a roughly 5.5% pay rise in October.

Again command depends on previous experience. Once you have been in the company 6 months you can start the ball rolling for command, process takes roughly 18-24 months.

Do SFOs get sector pay at the same rate as FOs and if so any idea what this will total in an average year? Thanks.

Yes it's the same rate. And just on sector pay I net around 1400 a month in the summer and 800 in the winter. But with trip trade you can get this up or down as you wish.

I find this thread hilarious.

You guys are comparing BA with EZY.

I've spent 20 years flying for BMI and EZY and have never met a BA FO who has come from BA to either of the other company's.

I must have flown with 100's if not 1,000's of FO's who have gone the other way.

There is no comparison.

I HAVE met Captains who have come from BA to EZY (on the fingers of one hand) - every single one retired at 55 from BA and can't quit and live the good life on 2/3 BA Captain pension.

I only post to put some balance to - as I say - a ridiculous debate.

In case anyone is wondering - I am convinced beyond doubt all operators mentioned are wonderful employers, look after their staff and are worthy sources of employment for any pilot.

;)

P.S. Very funny thread.

Fire and Brimstone

I completely agree !!

Explain to me why it's so ridiculous? What is it about BA that makes it the obvious choice? I agree very few people leave BA and many have come the other way and your right there must be a reason for that but I am wondering if those reasons are valid. I am not slagging BA off but I believe this debate has some real merit to it. First of all I must qualify this by saying I have no interest in long haul but there are some very genuine reasons for looking at Easy over BA.

1) EasyJet SFO salary is actually better than early year FO BA pay.
2) Work is shared evenly with no regards to seniority so you won't get shafted whilst others are laughing.
3) Command within a few years opposed to unlimited at BA.
4) The possibility of a 130k package within 2 years a figure that you might never reach under PP34.
5) Very few night stops.
6) constant 5 on 4 off roster.
7) No inequality in contracts and lifestyle.
8) opportunity for a regional base and not working from LHR.
9) You might get a weekend off.
10) you won't spend 25% of your year on reserve.

On the plus sides of BA.

1) Better pension (not much though espically if your on a captains salary after 2 years)
2) You get to say "I work for BA"
3) Option for LH

I appreciate a lot of the issues at BA are resolved with seniority but the question is are you prepared to wait 10 years to build up enough seniority to make your life decent. I also see that Easy has a lot of faults but I think it's incredibly arrogant to say this debate is stupid. BA is not the company it was T and Cs are no better than anyone else, moral is low, work live balance is terrible and recruitment has ground to a halt and with Brexit those at the bottom might be there for a long long time, I think maybe you are stuck in the past and can't see past the glory days Concorde has gone and BA are no different to Easy, this debate is real and deserves some respect.

Enzo to be fair on Brexit I think that's clearly going to impact easyJet far more than BA.

Possiblly and that's something to discuss as part of this thread, it might well be the case Easy are badly affected by Brexit and expansion and command possibilities dry up in which case BA becomes the obvious choice. But I think all these things are worth discussing not simply saying it's a stupid debate.

Enzo, just for clarification the roster at EZY is 5453, not 54.

Just to clarify, is this LHS or RHS sector pay?

Thanks for all the info on here. Good to see the site being useful :ok:

Is it possible for someone to share a few typical rosters please? Obviously all de-identified.

Has anybody had any progress after application yet?

Cheers!

That's RHS. FO sector pay is £18.74, captains is around £30. Scale it up and you'll have the LHS numbers. :)

F and B. Time to take off those rose tinted glasses. Whilst BA may well be the best gig in town, it is not that much better than easy.....and certainly 2 years to command as an experienced pilot as opposed to 10, if then, is a no brainer. In my case I stayed at easy with command now but remain in the BA pool.

Great. The contract says to expect about £7k a year as an FO but it sounds like it should be a lot more than that!


Also, is anyone able to explain what 'trip trade' is and how it works ? Thanks.

Applied as a DEC recently. Ticked 'No' to the - are you happy to pay £20-25k for the type rating and still got an invite to assessment.

Has this ticked box been overlooked?

Trip trades is the system that (theoretically) allows you to swap duties with other crew. Obviously, any swap needs to remain legal and unlike some carriers, you cannot swap days off - they are set at roster publication when on the 'random roster' or as per your 5/4/5/3 pattern.

So in my experience (FO on a random roster at a big base) it is of limited use, and the system software can be a little temperamental, but others may have different experiences.

If you compare €25,000 for a TR while on salary with flights & accommodation paid, it works out significantly better value than other airlines that charge slightly more, no salary and sort yourself out with flights & accommodation. The difference is huge. Not only that but you get a better deal afterwards. From what has been posted, concerning the newbie airlines 20 years old, why does everybody not beat a path to ez's door and forget the other pretenders?

The problem is that about 70% of the new hires of this year and most likely of the close future have been cadets, who are on a different deal, at least in the UK (flexicrew) with the other 30% being DEP/DEC, type rated or not. For these guys there is quite a selection, with around 5% of the applicants passing the assessment as direct entry captain.

In mainland europe easyjet conditions tend to be even better, at least in some countries, but recruiting usually happens in those places where t&c are bad, eg spain, portugal and holland.

After reading the before tax salaries for the London bases, could anyone tell how much the net salary is for a SFO at the LGW/LTN base? Thanks!

The details of pay scales for the UK at easy can be found on PPJN.

Thanks! But what I'm looking for are the Net figures, not the pre-tax figures like on PPJN.

Then go on a salary tax calculator site and work it out :ugh:
Hardly rocket science

Without student loan SFO nets about £4100, with student loan it's about £3700. Including sector pay etc

Hi folks, can anyone please give information on the waiting list for DEC to any of the Spanish bases, particularly Alicante and Malaga? Also, under a Spanish contract, what would a skipper clear each month after tax?

Many thanks in advance

You'll be waiting a while for ALC and AGP as they're not bases

Ok thanks, what about Barcelona?

The problem about requesting net salaries is that it is like asking, 'How long is a piece of string?' There are so many variables in there. Flying for easyJet at Gatwick, you can work on around 430-450 sectors a year. The Company pay 7% into your pension and you pay whatever you want - another variable. Also, there are two share schemes that you can put up to £150 in one and £350 in another - more variables. A further variable is that you will do more flights in the summer than the winter so it is hard to talk of a 'typical' net salary. Instead of incremental salary rises for years' service, the next variation is the 'loyalty bonus', which you get paid annually on the anniversary of joining. If you are a captain (also as an FO, but the details escape me), you get 5% each year after 2 years, 10% after 5 years and 15% after 10 years. You are therefore much better to look at the annual totals, think what you want to do in terms of pension, share purchases etc and then work it all out from there as an average over the year using one of the many apps that calculate tax.

No places for BCN and SFOs there waiting for command.

No base expansion in the future (at the moment) so chances are close to 0 being DEC (very young workforce and 99% willing to stay)

Frank both 50 and 75% is available. Random roster with the ability to book GDO's. Everyone I know who is part time is very happy.

Just wondering if anybody knows how long it can (roughly) take to get a base move to Manchester as a DEC?

I am a junior BA 320 skipper and like many of my colleagues looking very closely at Easy now........

Part time options depends on the country you are in.

In Italy you can get different options with 50 and 75%. 6 month off/6 months off, 15 days off/15 on, 7/7, and so on.
For some of the most popular options the waiting list is in the order of 13 years right now (most popular being 7/7 with one off in the 7 days of duty, which often become only 5 of duty).

Thread title
 

In view of the corporate colour scheme, shouldn't this thread be re-subtitled "For the love of (3) Oranges" ?

Hi Folks, just wondering is there any way around the question about currently flying passenger commercial ops, on the careers website. I flew pax for a few years and now flying the freight, and am looking at Easy Jet. Thanks.

MAN is one of the most popular bases, very long wait. (5 years at least, probably a lot more if BA stops recruiting our SFOs)

Frank W. Abagnale - I think from your location you work in the States and so it looks like you want a move to Europe. I think you will enjoy it, but like all moves you have to have your eyes wide open when moving to a different culture. I am a TRE on the Airbus with easyJet (Check Airman in American parlance). I am not a manager but have worked here for many years and I think I understand us enough to be able to answer some of your questions. These are not 'official' answers and the only correct ones are the ones you get in writing from easyJet when you get offered a contract. Anyway, in answer to your questions -


1.Would I fulfil the requirements to get hired as an SFO with Easy ?

I would say 'Yes' - but you would be made to pay for your type rating.

2.Is there a base where I can get part time straight away or do I have to work my way up ?

You would almost certainly not get part-time straight away, but 'working your way up' may not have the same meaning here as it would in the States. We do not have a seniority list, but there is kind of a one for getting a command - again it does not function in the same way as you are used to. Regarding getting part-time, that tends to vary from base to base. If you go to a small base like Barcelona, it would be much more difficult than, say, Gatwick where there are nearly 900 pilots. The key thing to note here is that part-time contracts do exist but you would be very unwise to plan your future on the assumption you will get one quickly - it is just not that guaranteed.

3.Is part time as an F/O even possible if you want an upgrade with Easy ?

Part-time as an F/O is completely independent of you wanting an upgrade. However, if you accept an offer of a command (our parlance for an 'upgrade'), you will have to give up your part-time contract for 6 months minimum. That is an operational requirement to ensure you become completely proficient in the left seat. After that you will join the line and when your turn comes (subject to base and 'the needs of the Company'!) you can go part-time again. The critical thing to take on board here is that easyJet is as good as its word in my experience - be that good or bad. We are not Ryanair where you believe you have joined on one contract only to discover a day after you join that the terms are completely different. You will get a written contract and that will be the deal - but that works both ways. If it says, for example, you have a base freeze for 3 years on a full-time contract, and 6 months later you go to your base captain and say, 'where do I apply for part-time?', he will bring out your contract and politely advise you that is not what you signed up for. So, on balance, I would be vary wary indeed of turning up here in the expectation of a quick part-time contract and a quick part-time command - there are just too many variables and I think you will inevitably be disappointed.

4. What is the time to command on European bases, which are available at the moment ?

It is very variable from virtually zero in Lisbon to 7 years at Milan. The truth is no one can tell you an exact figure and the historical values are not accurate predictors of the future - again this is a case of applying great caution. What I would say is that you should expect a full-time command when it appears. It would be much more likely that they offer you a command at Gatwick (paid in UK£) and it is up to you if you take it. You can always turn it down, and wait for a slot at the base of your choice. The other complication is that you can only be on one transfer list - so you can either wait for Paris or for Berlin but not both. In terms of bases available at the moment, they are mainly Lisbon and Porto, but I think there may also be slots in Palma. Interestingly, I did some training on a direct entry captain yesterday (very high quality guy) and he was going to Barcelona.

5. Apparently the only bases for F/Os are Porto/Lisboa and Palma on a seasonal contract. Any rumors for other bases on the continent in the near future ?

There are no absolutely certain rumours, and once again until a base is formally announced I would be very wary of assuming anything. When the 'word is on the street' that a new base is imminent, even among easyJet pilots there are a plethora of rumours - 99% of which turn out to be wrong!

One other thing not directly covered by your questions would be the issue of 'upgrades'. In traditional legacy carriers, unless there is a huge black mark on your file, you wait your turn in the queue ('line' in American terminology!) and when your number comes up you go on the course. That is not how it works at easyJet. We have a very low failure rate on our internal upgrades - this last year it has been less than 10 out of 175. The reason for that is that we have a very stringent selection process. When you have the necessary time in the company on a permanent contract (6 months I think), you apply, go on a list and get a first interview. You do some online courses and have to undergo a psychological examination (you get a red, amber or green light from that - the meaning being obvious!). Remember you do not have to be mad to get a red light - it can be that you did not demonstrate the command profile we want rather than be a nut job! You will do another interview at some points and get some evaluation flights. You then do a command assessment simulator that tests both your manual handling skills and ability to deal appropriately with emergency situations. That is followed by a 45 minute technical interview. Your file then goes before a 'Command Review Board' who discuss all candidates by name before they get a place on the Command Course. There are clearly a lot of pitfalls along the way so you should not take it as a given you will be successful - although in reality many people are. We are absolutely not a 'chopping' organisation and you get a lot of rope to hang yourself before the trapdoor opens. Nonetheless, the bottom line is we want our captains to be safe operators and easyJet will not hesitate to remove anyone from the process who gives them cause for concern. They frankly have no choice given the scale of their operation.

My summary would be - do not come here thinking a part-time contract is imminent. Also, be aware of the robust nature of the command process. It is far from impossible, but there are absolutely not any guarantees of the kind you may be looking for. My own experience, and others may choose to disagree, is that easyJet are a good employer and do what they say - be that good or bad. You do not have to be a superstar to succeed, but you do need to be flexible and understand how the contracts and basing policies work. Anyway, I hope that helps.

Hi everyone and thanks for a great thread.

What is the latest info on Scottish bases?

I presume there will be no DEC recruitment so if you did join as DEC in, say Gatwick, how long would you have to wait realistically to be transferred?