Airbus arrives at STN in November. There is a need for Airbus rated pilots, so a good chance to be based at whichever Airbus base suits I’d imagine.

You could ask the recruitment team to be sure but I think if you're rated you'd have a great chance of going straight into STN left seat Airbus

Do J2 have fixed patterns yet?!?

Sim trainers pattern starts this year, with a plan for 2026 in mind for line pilots. No idea what that entails as it’s in the early stages. I think there’s more to be revealed later this year.

Ppjn says J2 pension has increased to 15%, more in line with easyjet, making the ~5% for RyanAir captains look increasingly out of touch.

unfortunately, PPJN has that J2 info wrong! There has been no info from the company about increasing pension constitutions.

Have friends in both camps, all of which seem relatively content (obviously the J2 guys just a little bit more keen to tell everyone how happy they are :ok:)

I do wonder though if Jet2 will go through some growing pains with this massive Airbus order. They’ve always kept overheads low with older aircraft, so it’s more achievable to have pilots flying 500hrs a year and sat at home twiddling their thumbs in the winter. Now they’ll have some very shiny and expensive aircraft sat on the apron, and that’s before you start talking about the inefficiencies of running 2 very distinct fleets within a low-cost operation.

All of this in the future will have to be negotiated without any real union presence. No wonder the pay rise offered is only 3%

Just to burst that bubble - easyjet pays 7%

There is an 83% contract that is a fixed 28 pattern. 5/2/5/2/5/9.

Unfortunately there is huge apathy about the benefits of BALPA even though a strong union membership would up the T&Cs at J2. Bizarrely there’s a naive expectation that the internal PLOG talking group backed by management is somehow the only answer to improvements

How does it work with early starts on a fixed roster? Rest day on day 1 and fly on day 2?

Off the top of my head it’s just a report no earlier than 6am. Could be wrong though but I think that’s it

Mostly backed by the sycophantic ex-mil types who are just glad to have a job in civvy street.

This is quite accurate. Jet2 has a lot of old school ex military types who spent so long in a system that expects one to put up and shut up, they've carried that attitude into the airline world.

These are the same people that moaned day in day out about the lack of a bump to Ts & Cs but in the next breath called anyone that joined the union a delusional socialist!

Ive found this elsewhere, but nowhere as much as at Jet2.

From the things i am hearing from friends, morale seems to be on the turn at J2? Small sample size so hard to say if that’s widespread or not.

I can’t agree more, incredibly frustrating repetitive conversations with people to try and justify the need for BALPA. LBA is basically affectionately known in Jet2 as RAF Bradford

You hear correctly.

3% pay rise widely seen as a kick in the teeth.

Increase in day off payment clearly shows the plan to get through summer is by relying on crew working days off. Previous good relations between Mr Meeson and pilots meant guys being prepared to help out to keep the show on the road during the summer period when things got tight. Those days are sadly behind us now and gone with them is the goodwill of many.

Easy have seen significant rises recently and have a good roster stability during the summer months. They also have the option of significant financial reward for working a random roster. We work a random roster for less money and experience constant disruption, endless changes throughout the summer and relentless deep nights to Turkey, Canaries etc etc. Admittedly winter is okay but summer is frankly unbearable for the majority.

A number of part time options are said to be available however the reality is that they are now very difficult to get. The application process nearly always requires an appeal process through senior management and HR. Even if you are accepted onto it you will be taking a hefty pay cut but most likely working the same hours as before crammed into less days as they seem to write the part time rosters before everyone else's.

As a result of the recent pay rise, those who were on the fence about joining Balpa are now becoming increasingly motivated to get organised and I understand that Balpa are seeing record signups on the back of it. No doubt they will muddle through this summer but summer 26 could be a very different story if we can get a good percentage of the pilot body organised.

This is exactly why I left Jet2 several years ago for an airline with a proper scheduling agreement. Sad to see things haven’t really improved in Jet2 in this respect since then.

Strongly disagree there, that has never been my experience.

Only an option for this summer as there aren't enough crew, and it's only available to those on a full-time fixed pattern, or part-time. If you're on a random roster already you don't get the extra uplift. It's also discretionary which likely means you aren't getting it if you're sick or fatigued at all that month.

in fairness, last summer was considerably better than previous year. But roster changes remain an issue, mostly due to poor schedule planning.

also, I don’t think if you go sick or fatigued once that they will remove any of the extra money. I think that provision is there to prevent extremes such as being sick for 3 months and expecting to keep the extra money. Let’s see if there are any reports of people having money deducted at the end of the period.

My roster at EZY has been reasonably stable.

Also remember we have the tools to refuse changes within 72hrs if the change is by more than 2hrs and or do it and take the extra payment.

So you can refuse a change within 72 hours of the duty if greater than 2hrs? Is that 2 duty hours? Or starting 2hrs earlier/finishing later? If you accepted what sort of payment value is that?

In Jet2 we have the ability to refuse 1 change a month, Maximum 3 refusals in the summer season I think…. They are called IPW instant protection window. The policy is written to give the company maximum flex on how they work us, and chop and change us.

You can refuse if the new duty starts/finishes 2 hours earlier/later than the original duty.

The standard payment for a Short Notice Change is £70, but EZY had to triple that rate for a few months during summer 25 to convince more pilots to accept these constant changes. We have a total of 24 refusals per year, with a maximum of 4 per month.

Refuse if the start/end time is more than 2 hours difference from what you were originally rostered. Last summer, if we accepted the change, we would then be given a £210 short notice change payment.

24 refusals a year, I’m not sure if they keep count, in my experience I’ve never got anywhere near it. Max 4 a month.

Out of curiosity can any J2 heads opine on why J2 dont offer staff travel ?
If they’re going to have to compete with Ezy for pilots then surely it’s a consideration?
it will be hard for them to put a fixed pattern in place while still short of pilots but they’ll probably get there in the end.

It's ingrained into the psyche of the company from when Philip Meeson was at the helm. His view was he'd rather have a paying passenger on the seat than give it away cheap for staff.

There's so many little things they could do for staff which they don't. It beggars belief at times. The beancounters are definitely in charge now.

There is, and always has been, staff travel. I’ve used it many many times.

There is an intranet site for discounted crew holidays. They also send a monthly (I think) email with hot deals. I’ve not used it myself yet, but I know of colleagues who’ve saved thousands, or got a really cheap last minute break. I think it is very much on their terms, such as; availability, resort (probably not top tier), seasonal, load factor/ room capacity etc. so can very much depend on how flexible you can be with dates, location etc.

Great if you are able to travel flexibly and out of peak season. Pointless for anything else.

And that is the crux of the issue with Jet2. Everything is stacked in their favour. Gone are the 'friendly' days. Crew are very much a Human Resource nowdays.

Experienced SFO - approx 5500 airbus hrs (mix of narrow & wide body). Looking for quickest time to command. Not too bothered about salary or base, but wouldn’t mind somewhere in Scotland if available. Thinking of J2 or EZY. Thoughts pls?

Having experience of both airlines I would say between the two, easyjet would be a fraction quicker but it is very dependant on IF you can get in to EZY. Assuming that you have an Airbus type rating, Jet2 are actively recruiting experienced FOs, whereas i am not sure EZY are recruiting experienced FOs as they tend to draw from their pool of cadet pilots pumped through the big flight schools. At easyjet, especially LGW based, you will fly more than at Jet2 and will hence rack up hours quicker. However that isn't to say that Jet2 would be especially "slow", as once you have the experience then commands are available. At your experience level, between the two airlines, there wouldn't be a notable difference, the question is getting in in the first place.

Thanks for the response. Put the getting in aside - with experience of both carriers, which in your opinion offers the quickest path to the left seat? Ive heard J2 have a tendancy to take a bit longer than they quote. I dont have much info re ezy

From what I understand, it’s more straightforward at easy.

With 5500 hours Airbus, command will happen quickly at J2 as long as you meet the standard in assessments. The quickest it could take is about 12 months, as that’s how long it takes to get through the assessment process, plus a command course.

There are rumours about it being difficult to pass a command at J2. Don’t believe it. The standards are high but the process is supportive and your success will be a reflection of the effort you put in to complement the training.

Thx for that - encouraging feedback & much appreciated 👍

Been in J2 for a year on the Airbus and my impression is morale is good, far better than my last place. And standards are good, training relaxed and line ops a breeze with superb support from ops.

As others have probably answered above, it's going to be about the same. Don't buy the BS about it being difficult to get commands in Jet2, that's not the case. The training culture has moved on and is very similar to easyJet in all the right ways. The only limiting factor at both airlines will be your performance and your preferred base.

I know a place that would offer you a quick upgrade , flexible bases and 1200 a month , but once you upgrade it'd increase to about 2000 .

I didn’t say it was perfect, all I was doing was pointing out that there IS a staff travel system. So many posts on here claim there isn’t one at all which is incorrect. I did get seats to Alicante at Feb 1/2 term this year using staff travel.