British Airways

[andyBeaker]

Does anyone really know what is happening here?

the planned strikes might be the end for BA. Presumably there are good reasons why a large part of the workforce want to strike?

I really really really hope this gets sorted out in the very short term; there won't be a Government bailout, it will be 'goodbye BA'.

Have always been my favourite carrier.:cry:

 

[dhekalia]

How the mighty have fallen, easyJet is now the UK's largest airline.

Figures published by the CAA this week show that, for the second year in a row, we are the UK?s largest airline in terms of number of passengers flown.

In 2009, over 28 million passengers flew with easyJet through UK airports ? more than any other airline. In just 15 years we have grown from a small two aircraft operation to become the UK?s largest airline; not bad going eh?

We are ahead of Ryanair and British Airways, and way ahead of other the likes of BMI and Fly Be:

When I were a sprog and working at HEATHROW BA were mighty and well respected, a pain in the ar*se to get anything done though, now.....
It is a shame, I think BA Management have done enough to get them through this in terms of remaining but the damage to an already tarnished reputation?

Dhek'

 

[Duck n Dive]

Cabin crew have resisted changes for many years......

A few years ago the cabin crew at Gatwick were moved to the terms & conditions that BA want at LHR.

The LHR cabin crew declined to assist their colleagues at Gatwick resist that change.

Now BA want the same at LHR........

Given the state of the industry and BA in particular the BA offer isn't bad .. broadly they'd end up on thje same sorts of allowances etc as their LGW "comrades" but with no reduction in salary .. new lower salaries would only apply to new starters.


There's a bit more in the detail but that's broadly that.


However, the real deal is it's not particulalry about the money - it's about who runs BA.

The cabin crew believe they do ..... the CX thinks he'd like to have a go at running it instead

There's been a fair of "dirty tricks" ("allegedly") ... disgruntled cabin crew have been trying to start up a new crew body to represent them ..... it "appears" that the unions IT/Web person hacked their site and linked it to prono sites etc.

The two main unions involved Unite & BASSA refused to even sit together in the same room until quite recently so BA had to try and negotiate with each individually.


Sadly my experience (not just with BA) is that when an a/c doesn't go anywhere because of "crew hours" .. it's very often the cabin crew who stamped their feet and refused to use discrentionery hours - the pilots are often the first to to do what they can to get the thing moving - unless to do so would be illegal.



It's a sad fact that in aviation today the world is in turmoil - did you know that SAS almost went out of business last weekend


British Midland's survival depends on what it's current owner (Lufthansa) thinks it can salvage .. might be a lot .. might be nothing.


BA is currently known in the industry as "London Airways" - truth is it's long been regarded as this really - first thing it does when the going gets tough is cancel anything that doesn't start in Heathrow.

It flogged it's domestic flights to FlyBe who seem to be able to make money from it - BA reckoned it was a basket case...... then again that may have been due to BA's terms & conditions:-0)


I've rambled enough ... I'll stop now .. maybe p0pc0rn41

 

[Duck n Dive]

We are ahead of Ryanair and British Airways, and way ahead of other the likes of BMI and Fly Be:'

Don't ya just love press releases put out by the organisation there about :-0)

True ... EZY do carry more passengers out of UK airports than Ryanair ...

but then Ryanair aren't a UK airline

when you look at pax numbers carried EZY are dwarfed by Ryanair by a long, long, long, long, long way :xm


Did you know that the chap flying the Ryanair or EZY aircraft in the right hand seat might well be ... how do I put it .....


paying to be there effectively .. yep .. that's it.

Apart from some small allowances the lady or gent may well not be earning a penny - rather paying the airline to be there in order to get inot the business in the hope they might get a real job.


:cry:

 

[karlos2000]

I flew BA to Denver at Christmas, booked in late summer, so was unaware of their plans for the proposed xmas strike, thankfully it was deemed illegal. I'll never use them again as I had a terrible lead up to xmas worrying about it and staring at a ruined family holiday. I usually use the US carrier United for transatlantic flights but BA offered a direct flight (using United always means a hub change at Dulles or Chicago) so I "thought" it was the best option to use BA.

I'm flying to Paris next week, and NOT with fucking BA, the sooner they crash and burn and United & Virgin pick up the slots the better, it won't happen though ..... sadly, they've £2 billion in the bank, they'll compromise and the fucking cabin crew will bimble on regardless, bleeding them dry until it finally goes tits up on the pan.

as for 'Royanair', those fucking bogtrotting bozos, jeezus ...... they actually play a jingle if they land without crashing, wankers ..... Flybe planes might as well be hollowed out dogshit they are that bad ...... Sleazy are a cut above, but still shit, hang on they're all shit ..... I hate them all ......

 

[dhekalia]

Duckndive, Ryanair on passenger figures "Internationally" are one of the world LARGEST, so yeah I grant you, but 10 years ago, nobody would have put a penny on easyJet or Ryan being this big. As for R/H seat, not so much in easy as it is in Ryanland, and in my neck of the woods discretion by the sharp end is becoming rare, but thats another story not for here!
Dhek

 

[Duck n Dive]

As for R/H seat, not so much in easy as it is in Ryanland,

But EZY have caught on now and their latest wheeze is making up for the lost time d34l

 

[dhekalia]

easy still have a large pool of F.O's waiting for command, there are some cadets around but still not caught up with the harpies yet, But! where Ryan leads others follow so long as they don't fall flat on their face and it makes a buck easy and all the others follow...it makes money simple
Dhek

 

[madlandrover]

It's a shame how the industry has fallen apart over the last few years - but perhaps it's a necessary change. The real damage is being done in 2 main places. Airlines have a ready supply of people who are (relatively!) willing to pay for not only all their own training, but are even willing to buy a certain number of line hours from the airline to log hours in commercial air transport for their CVs. I can't really blame airlines for accepting this source of revenue! Oddly enough Ryanair seem to be resisting the worst of this up to now.

Equally, some of the damage is being done by those pilots who are willing to spend that money paying to fly an airliner for 6 months. Even mid-recession there are still a lot of people spending up to ?80000+ in a reasonably short space of time and then realising the scale of the competition. It therefore almost makes sense to gamble an extra ?25-30000 to get work, rather than admit defeat. Again, I can't totally blame them for making the effort, although the lack of research is a little worrying.

Even the instructing side has dried up quite scarily - until early 2008 anyone finishing an instructor's course was pretty much guaranteed employment somewhere, whereas I know of a number of good candidates with good qualifications gained in the last year who can't find any work in aviation. It also used to be the case that 1000 flying hours was the magic number to open employment doors, particularly for ex-instructors. A few friends and I are well past that number with no sniff of any prospects for a while... Scary times.

 

[Duck n Dive]

Crazy situation :bang:

sadly the 1000 plus hours which before were regarded as good experience are now too much


250 hours and deep pockets/big loans seems the way of things :violin:


By the way .. guess who good 'ole BA are chartering aircraft from to operate for them during the strike ........


you couldn't make it up Ryanair


I can't wait to see what MOL does with the publicity ... wonder what will be painted on the side of the aircraft ..............

 

[madlandrover]

It certainly has changed - even recently redundant colleagues with thousands of multi-engine training hours (ie all route and approach flying...) are being turned down for jobs on the grounds that they have too much single pilot experience and so can't be retrained from the ground up. Pretty much means we're all doomed to single pilot ops, fewer nights away and dodgy rosters...

 

[D.S.]

As an ex-BA & ex-BAA employee and still very much involved in the industry now in the UK, Italy, Spain and Australia, all I'll say on the matter is feck 'em.
BA cabin have always been prima-donna's :-0) Like it or not, it's time for change. I just hope they come to a compromise because on a personal level I find their service terrific and BA are my European airline of choice.

 

[gypsy]

As an ex-BA & ex-BAA employee and still very much involved in the industry now in the UK, Italy, Spain and Australia, all I'll say on the matter is feck 'em.
BA cabin have always been prima-donna's :-0) Like it or not, it's time for change. I just hope they come to a compromise because on a personal level I find their service terrific and BA are my European airline of choice.

Selling the "Big Issue" next to BA's check-in desk hardly classes you as an employee :-0)

 

[Samster]

'kin Unions - best way to bring a good business to it's knees