a797 - as you say your out of touch.

Im not the defending type or a cadet or looking for a Visa, if something is !!!! will happily state it. My main beef with Ryanair is I would like more roster options like Jet2 but that's it.

I stay within the rules, take the fuel I want, don't do days off as a rule, ignore witheld numbers on days off, go sick on average the same amount as anyone else, I don't get many roster changes, they don't mess with my money or my time off and Im in a base I want to be. Thus never been for any tea with or without buscuits.

Maybe Im just a simple bod. I miss some of the things on my sadly deceased old airline. Enjoyed the odd night stop and a laugh with the crew and other night stopping crews. Even enjoyed some freighter work I once did. Definitely enjoyed doing only 250 - 300hrs a year - ah those were the days. Definitely didn't enjoy massive duty days positioning in hire cars, taxis and planes and sitting around crew rooms for hours on end. Oh yeah dont miss wearing a hat....

I have no beef with any person or company.

To answer the original question, Ryanair is a stepping stone airline, they know this, which is why they treat people like !!!!, in fairness they don't treat their pax much better so what do you expect.

The greatest trick they ever pulled was to convince people that working a stable 5/4 roster flying 800+ hours a year was better than a random one flying 5 das a month you can control through a decent leave/DO system (which by the way Jet2 don't have just yet for fairness in posting but it's the best one I have seen in 3 airlines so far)...

By the way I appreciate the stable roster makes sense for some people's family life so I'm not having a jab the work/life balance of it has just never made sense to me

In short, if I needed a job I would go work for them tomorrow, beats stacking shelves, but if there was any other reasonable flying option I would take that first

WR if your working 5 days a month on a random roster on full time gig and wage. Where do I sign up?

Not joking by the way. Just jealous.....

Thats sound like you have hit the jackpot.

Sorry a797 isn’t that out of touch.

I moved on from them less than a year ago.
The only 2 positives at RYR are the 5/4 and quick command. Maybe a third they aren’t disappearing anytime soon.

As an FO I was on some Blue contact or something. Worth nothing. Tried to remortgage with the contract and the underwriters laughed us out of the bank. Even though it said permanent it also stated until 2025 with no guarantee of continuing. No guarantee on this that and the other.
3 bases I asked for. Didn’t get offered any. Sent to a base that was “struggling” yet I had so much standby. I did move pretty quickly but only because I had UK licence. Of my course and the 2 before not many got the base they asked for until RYR started making a massive effort to get people to where they wanted to be. I mean I even knew a guy at the base I wanted to be and he wanted to be at my base.

Went into discretion twice in 1 5 day block. More discretion in a month than in the previous 6 years of flying at another airline.

CC collapsed on sector 3. Had crewing calling us up screaming at us to GET THE PASSENGERS ON NOW. YOU NEED TO BE AIRBORNE ASAP. Didn’t even ask about the CC.

2 guys from my intake got properly shafted. 1 wanted time of for the birth of his child. He so wanted the job so accepted any base which wasn’t ideal. RYR said no.

Another guy was due a base transfer. He got another job a week before he was meant to transfer. Gave RYR 3 months notice. Day before transfer terminated his contract with immediate effect. Can’t remember the base he was at but apparently legal.

Heard of one guy who’s dad was terminal. All he asked for was to be as close as possible. 3 bases easily where he needed to be. Yes yes……. Denied. Sent to arse end of nowhere.

Captain I flew with had 5 long days. Having a chat with him he said he was expecting this week as 2 weeks previous they asked him to do 2 extra sectors which he said no to. He noticed his roster went blank that week and changed to those long days. He’s been at RYR for 25 years and said yeah that’s what they do.

Met a captain when I was positioning over to do a SIM. Thought he might have been my SIM partner. “No I got to go to Dublin because I haven’t been flying cost index”

I could go on and on.

Like I said 5/4 is very good. Fast command. That’s it in my books.

Wow, I knew It was bad but that is eye opening, thanks for posting, we need more of this stuff, in all airlines by the way not just about RYR.

And Mach Number, your right, i did, but sadly age is catching up to the equipment and i am having to move onto something new, but what a time it's been!

I left almost 10 years ago. When I read AIMINGHIGH's post it's all coming back to me. They were not a pleasant lot to work for. Nice colleagues though, mostly.

So you left Ryanair? I think that post was from 2012.

Coming to BA. Were you at BA or not? And if you were how did you get in without applying?

Well, I've been there for 8 and half years and I cannot relate to any of this. I know where I stand so should everyone else, you might not know your OMA by heart but you should know where to look for info. If OPS ever shout to me, I just tell them to get some composure and call me back again, then I hang up. I don't do any days off. I never been in Dublin for not being flexible nor for not flying on cost index from time to time. Yes, I had to wait for my base. Yes, I had to wait for my contract. Yes, I also did fly with some twats and had some unpleasant conversations with some FOPS managers. Did I cry until then? No.

So I guess it depends to who you're talking to, some people succumb more to pressure than others. Not saying that it is this case but there are some people that piss in the mop bucket a lot. Most of them are the ones that have experiences like this. The rest, I guess they are just unlucky. It's not the perfect airline, and it will never be. But it is much better than what is was 10 years ago. And I'm sure other airlines are better in certain stuff but also not so good as RYR in other aspects. Horses for courses.

thanks mate
Sorry to bother, but would you mind to share your experience a little bit deeper? The really bad and good stuff?
only ir you want to, do course

Get yourself a Batphone then. Have had one for 5 years and it's worked like a dream.

Personal number is private for a reason. Not for your employer to contact you on.

After reading this thread I’m sure you’ve obtained enough information now. Don’t you think? It’s not very difficult to weigh up the options for or against working for FR.

Asking folks for more detail on their already descriptive posts is starting to smell like lazy journalism.

Time for mods to close this thread.

lazy journalism?
dude, what world do you live in?
Isn’t that too much paranoia for a simple thread?


although some good content have been shared here, I wouldn’t consider a handful of them out of thousands of fellow pilots as “enough” to clearly choose what path to take, as this directly affects my career and my family


So I respectfully ask you to either participate the thread with what is the main objective, not just for me but Also for those who may follow,
Or you can just Stay away,


cheers

"Met a captain when I was positioning over to do a SIM. Thought he might have been my SIM partner. “No I got to go to Dublin because I haven’t been flying cost index”

but if 2% of FR pilots flew in excess of Cost Index, then that's 50 interviews each month if it was 10% then that's 250, I'm sure their management have better things to do.

When it comes to getting time off for the birth of your child. If there's any doubt about getting the time off, you just call in sick. It is as easy as that.

Once you ask for time off, you kind off wipe that option off the table as it would look too suspect.

in the UK you are entitled to two weeks paid paternity leave.

Yes, but it cannot be taken before the child is born. This is about actually being there for the birth.

My company positioned me home early from a night in Europe when it like my wife might be going into labour, all sorted at 1am and nothing but support given. Baby didn’t come but that wasn’t a problem. No need to call in sick if it looks like baby might be imminent, they don’t want you flying anyway.

Theres a bit of licence holder responsibility there. You can’t possibly be fit to fly with a partner in labour, whether there’s been an arrival or not!

You wouldn’t need to call in sick. Just tell them your partner is having a baby and you aren’t available to fly.. it’s not an excuse you’ll be using every week

Was chatting to a couple of my European colleagues over the weekend. Thought I should add to this thread. There appears to be moves by FR to place airframes in the UK from Europe, staffed by zero hour paid crew. FR will pay a small fee or pay for hotel. It was alleged that this is a feasibility study, well it's practical if it occurs. Was muted that there may be a planning scenario of using European zero hours aircrew in UK while reducing salaried UK staff. This would be a very unsettling move if it occurred. Not aware of any movements in this direction but admit that I am not exactly in a loop to know. It may be rubbish but still it's out there if that be the case.

It would be difficult for them to do that because the vast majority of the European zero hour crews don't have the right to work in the UK. I presume you're referring to Buzz crew because the only other zero hour pilots are contractors (fixed and floaters), and they are not cheap for the company.

Also, the buzz crews aren't able to operate the G or EI reg aircraft whilst simultaneously operating SP reg. There's a sim between each time they transfer reg. The floating guys can operate EI reg but again, they are very expensive and recently got a payrise so it won't serve the alleged intended purpose.

you obviously more informed than me, it was just that I was part of a conversation and was listening as I didn't have anything to input. My impression was that the aircrew wouldn't be resident but just coming in to operate their airframes which I believe would be the on the European register so it's a bit of a mess for me to understand the various legal issues. It was really to post to see if anyone had comments. Thanks for your insight.

Just took the freedom to make some changes.

You are more than welcome to that. I can see the argument that they are cheap as there is no employer NI or retirement contributions. However at €230 an hour I still wouldn't call them that cheap.

What would the plan be? To pay UK guys a high basic salary and not have them actually work? It's gross £10/hr FOs are getting and we are doing full months even as the October roster is coming out. Or as guys leave, not replace them with more employed pilots but floaters/contractors?

If it is true I don't see it surviving very long. HMRC will come knocking and IR35 will be argued. Everyone will quickly skidaddle.

They also have UK zero hr contractors. Every other day I hear about another one getting audited by HMRC.

Didn't mean to take a dig at you or your comment - I was just pointing that contractors will be always cheaper than employees (otherwise why would governments come up with that idea several years ago?

It is much more than NI & pension. Sick pay, accommodation paid when sending out of base, per diems, visas, not to even talk they discount contractors €4.5/hour to cover your recurrent sim expenses, which is part of OMD legislation, not ATO :yuk:

Then there are corporate costs savings like NI, pension, insurance, death in service etc that the company is not liable to pay you a penny. And the whole social responsibility.

Don't know any skipper that is on €230/hour (including mobile pilots), FOs are €85 or €90 so a skipper won't be more than double. But I know RYRs wet dream is to get everyone working as contractors.

HMRC has bigger fish to fry, especially now when the contractor community has dropped significantly (FOs now offered direct contract, a must if EU national being UK based due to visa requirements).

Not sure if my post was explicit enough. Further to some info from sources it's now my understanding is that the crew will fly in to the UK for anfive day work roster. Fly in first morning and then operate a European frame for next five days. Fly out on day six. Hotel accommodations provided for five days. No subsistence period. The crew only paid for flying hours. Skippers rate is €160 Hr, FO €80 is what is believed. This crew arrangement does not attract attention of any UK HMRC. Dublin, is also being targeted. Their are rumours that BALPA are concerned at this sort of move which erodes their members futures. Must say this is all third party information and I cannot corroborate any of this but thought it was the right place to air as there seems to be more than a couple of chaps who are expressing concerns.

Quick questions (again):

First, I must stress that I was approved during a recent assessment and was eventually offered a job as DEFO at Ryanair DAC based in the UK. Ground school is set for next January.

That being said, base allocation (so far) is STN but I was looking forward to changing the base to somewhere else in the UK. Realistically speaking, is this feasible? And if affirmative, at which point I should/could do this? I am already aware of the base bidding system, but I was wondering if there is another channel to settle this before I am even allocated to STN, so I don't need to change later.
Also, any idea what are the most sought-after bases in the UK?

TIA :ok:
BF

what’s your course number for January ? :)

Interested in DEC RUK , not much info on this part of the empire ,

Can anybody tell me
- the bond for non 737 TR
- the actual pay ( ppjn doesn't seem to cover it )
- the bases ( heard stan, man, edi and bfs ?)

Is it 5/4, 5/4 roster

Thanks for any gen

The floating captains are getting €222.5/hr (- 4.50 sim). If they are LTCs, they get €15 extra per hour. If they happen to be a TRE then it's another €15 extra per hr.

Floating FOs are getting €133/hr.

Fixed base contractors get the above figures minus €50/hr (no floating supplement). I've flown with floating captains this summer already so it wouldn't be new. The company are genuinely short though, there literally are not enough based captains to cover the schedule.

As for HMRC, I know of pilots who they were very interested in and are now getting audited. They took home ridiculous pay checks though.

A few pages back, someone has posted the latest CLA pay deal all agreed with Balpa. I suggest you have a look.

Thanks - found it .
122k for uk capt then .

Are you still paying for uniform ( how much ?) medicals , car parks etc ?

Hi Prob30,

As far it was told us during the assessment, there is a three-year bond for non-typed pilots.
There is no deduction per se, but for every year worked they cancel 1/3 of your debt. I think it is around 15K quid.

Regarding the bases, from what I learned, new hires are all being assigned STN, regardless of base options made during the assessment, but this is only a personal observation.

Please note this information is for RYR not RUK, might be different.

As of June, I believe Ryanair UK has four aircraft based at STN, four aircraft based at MAN, one or two aircraft based at EDI and one or two aircraft based at BFS. So you are more likely to get STN or MAN base with RUK.

You pay for everything except hotels for recurrent SIMs.

Edit: You do pay for sim hotels, I forgot, occasionally they pay for a taxi for you to/from SIM because they can't afford to have you off the line for a day DH through the network.
Thanks vpcaptain

Thanks for the info .
I remember 20 years back it was £50 to read your CV
Now it's £60 for Im guessing a psyche questionnaire

You do pay for recurrent sim hotels, have to DH to sim can’t self drive, 13 RUK 737-800’s two at each of EDI and BFS one parked at PIK rest MAN STN. BHX getting 2 next.

How many pilots is Ryanair hiring nowadays?

How long does it take from application to interview offer?

What is the interview pass rate?

Hi All,
Reading through this forum and want to highlight a couple of things;

• DEC Assessments take place weekly in STN, if you are successful you will be offered a position within 5 working days, you apply on careers.ryanair.com
• UK Captain Salary is £147k or £144k if regional (if dual licence rated)
• Basic £108,000 Allowance (uniform, parking, loss of licence, or do whatever you want with it) £6,000 A/L pay £2,897 Sector pay £14,714 (based on 850 avg hours) Pension £8,000 London Allowance £3,000 Total £142,611 Dual licence Allowance £5,000 Total inc DLA £147,611
• The psychometric assessment is provided by AON - If you successfully join a course, this is reimbursed in full
• Its a fixed 5/4 roster for duration of your Ryanair career
• For Non-Type Rated Captains it is a €15k reducing bond (no payment reductions etc)
• Loads of opps for fast track command & training dept

Hope that helps
Cheers

Any BLL based (or CPH) willing to share details/t&c’s ?

Can you explain a bit more about fast track commands.
What are the minimum requirements and exactly how fast is the process ?

send me a PM and I’ll give you a few DKK numbers