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.