Are you able to share which long haul fleet they have come from, because I have not yet seen a single person move from long haul P2 to C32L before their 4 year pre-command freeze is up. There are a few people who have moved after that 4 year point, (so one year early from their initial engagement freeze), but this is pretty normal. I would very strongly advise against anyone relying upon, (or even slightly hoping that), joining long haul as a DEP will lead to a short haul command after a year or two. In my opinion that just is not going to happen any time soon. Yes, join short haul as a P2, and you can move right to left the following training year, but that is because the pre-command freeze on type is just one training year rather than the 4 for a ‘change of type’ command. Basically, pre-command freezes tend to always remain in place.

These rumours have surfaced on here from time to time, but analysis of the annual bid results just doesnt provide any evidence of it. Why? Well it’s exactly as you say. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul and it just doesn’t make commercial sense to do it. They will only do that if they are desperate, and as far as i can see, they are not there yet, because plenty of junior P32L folk want the right to left conversion.

The only possibility of it happening, (that I haven’t closely tracked), is junior people who were made redundant, or put in the CRS from the 747’s retirement during Covid. They obviously all needed new type ratings, and short haul command courses would very much have been on offer for anyone who had the required minimum experience levels.

There were a few transfer skippers at Euroflyer who spent single digit months at Heathrow as an FO before making the move down. Not all of them were CRS. Although that was back near the beginning of the operation.

Saying that though, they still advertise externally for DEC at Euroflyer.

And I think you will see a lot more junior LHS skippers converting to RHS Lh when their freeze expires. In turn, there are an awful lot of us in the RHS LH who wouldn’t consider going back to short haul, and an ever increasing number talking of foregoing a junior LH command for lifestyle reasons. As we have seen, money can’t buy happiness! I think in years to come the wait for LH could increase significantly. We may even see right to left on short haul becoming the new norm prior to RHS LH. This is certainly the case in many other worldwide airlines

I’m afraid it seems to go full circle in BA. I’m sure many of the old hands in BA can tell you at one point 30 odd years ago, the highest paid pilots in BA were the shuttle back up boys followed by short haul pilots. At the time, short haul commands were like gold dust and pilots waited close to 20 years to achieve one. Then we had a chief pilot that asked, why do we have relatively expensive short haul pilots? (Without asking why do we have relatively cheap long haul pilots? )
The money was redistributed and supposedly more money chucked into the pot via the unions negotiating.
Any particular fleet in an airline is going to be the highest paid and unsurprisingly that is where the majority of the senior guys will migrate to. After all, we are all professional pilots. Professional as in , we get paid for the job as opposed to being any good at it. ;)

Crew capacity test
 

Morning all

I have an upcoming crew capacity assessment with BA, I was wondering if someone would be able to DM to provide an overview of what to expect and how best to prepare for it?

I’ve seen Skytest mentioned a few times, but I want to make sure this is still accurate and value for money.

many thanks if anyone is able to help.

If you can accurately manipulate two different objects at the same time (a phone and a riding crop, for example), your capacity is fine.

Your moral compass and common sense may be up for question, however!

Hi all, just got an email saying I’ve passed the simulator assessment. Any ideas on how long the current A320 hold pool is?

Many thanks

Do you have to give three months notice and are you current 320.
If 320 rated you may be offered short course conversion of four sim details and not full course but best to tell Admin ASAP.

just been offered a euroflyer job after applying to mainline!

How long were you in the hold pool? Throughout the process I was told it would be mainline.

What was the start date they gave you as from what I gather there’s no A320 positions before the beginning of next year.

And what did you answer to the EF question during the application?

I have been reading the whole thread since beginning… took me couple of days.

I will be going to Eagle test soon.

Currently flying right seat on easyjet style airline in Eu.
Early 30s, no kids, no wife and not British but not home currently either and will probably never be. So expecting them to sponsor me for work permit after I convert to UK licence. Left seat at current job between 7 to 10 years. Also considering EK for saving some cash for couple of years but still not sure about the lifestyle. Im more tempted to make LHR home initially until senior enough or LH to have commutable time off to settle somewhere warm.

Appreciate any DOs and DON’Ts from people with similar profile.


Cheers

Unless this is a very recent change, BA do not sponsor work permits, and only accept those with the permanent right to remain in the UK already.

I think its new. I remember ticking the box “not having right to work in UK” during the application. They only wanted to confirm the EASA to UK licence conversion Route before sending me the interview link.

they have confirmed they will sponsor for a DEC position, so it’s pretty much only Euroflyer and Cityflyer, as there is a minimum salary requirement by law (I think around 78k) so a f/o position at BA would not qualify.

No idea. They only mention Uk license or EASA, 3rd Country Licence conversion routes compatibility in the Job Ad. I mentioned during application that I wouldn’t be interested in EF or CF. Applied DEP FO SH.
I hope there is no mistake because passed video Interview plus booked my trip to LHR for capacity test.

There are 2 figures in the salary list. 71.7k is the normal requirement and there is a reduced amount of 28.9k. There seems to be specific conditions under which the lower salary requirements apply and I can’t see how it would apply to the average pilot.

check this table(code 3511)

Salary

I suggest asking the recruiting guys directly. Maybe they will just hand you a EF or CF offer and hope you accept. I am lead to believe they are somewhat desperate.

I can't add anything at all to do with skilled visas, but i can tell you that a LHR PP1 DEP is below that salary threshold currently, but will be just above it after December 2024 pay rise.

Thank you for the explanation. While waiting for the answer to my email, It seems that for my case, the standard rate would apply. As mentioned, Pp1 is lower. I think they start processing people if they know the new numbers will be increased to slightly higher than the required minimum.