Episode three of BBC2's "A Very British Airline" documentary, following around various aspects of British Airways' operations.
Continue reading: BBC Two’s “A Very British Airline:” Episode 3
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It's a great series.
It was actually the first batch of newbie pilots BA has TRAINED in 10 years. It sounded like the newbies had some experience, probably light aircraft. Pretty cool for them ... although they had to pay 84K for the training and then get paid a pittance when they start flying for the airline.
Great show and I'm looking forward to watching the third episode. I'm not sure how objective it is though. The documentary series from the 1990's covered many more subjects and after watching all of it I was left feeling like I'd never want to fly BA again.
I thought this was definitely the best of the three programmes. The baggage supervisor had a very sensible outlook and a view of the 'wider picture'. The Director of Operations looked like he had a very interesting/stressful job. I'm afraid the Golden Ticket chap just reminded me of a character out of 'Come Fly With Me' though - if you haven't seen it yet, Ben, I'm sure you'd enjoy it! (it's a few years old now but takes the proverbial out of the usual airline documentaries and is pretty funny)
Hmmm... So people have to pay BA directly for a privilege of being trained? Seems different from the US. Don't we have special flight schools for core training and then airlines do some additional training once someone is hired?
In the modern era, cadet pilots sponsor their own training taking substantial loans from the banks in a gamble to make it.
This BA scheme still sees the cadet fund the training, but the loan is secured by BA, and paid back gradually through salary reduction....hence the low starting wage for them.
The programmes really did not show BA in a good light IMO. They were proudly boasting how much it cost for a premium tickets.... Then spent the whole series showing what poor value for money it is. Not many happy customers.
Enjoyed it very much, as the previous two episodes. I am quite a fan of BBC's documentaries, but I am not sure if the 'very British' side of this airways has been shown in every aspect. Would be excited if they continue Season 2 with more 'British' elements. Nice documentaries as always, BBC! Thanks for sharing, Ben!
@ Xulu - thank you for explaining how the training system works. What BA does certainly makes sense... well, depending on just how much they reduce the salary.
You guys need to check out another BBC Documentary series called Airport Live, basically on the functioning of Heathrow. Pretty interesting.