TUIfly BE is facing several challenges,

not only because of the grounding of the MAX, but also because of the fierce competition in the European sky. The tendency in Europe is now clearly going towards the creation of groups of airlines.

The Thomas Cook’s bankruptcy has (once again) shown that our Company can quickly react and take advantage of situations. This has been made possible by the hard work and flexibility of a lot of employees.

As pilot representatives it is not always easy to find the right balance between what the company needs and what the pilots need. We try to make our decisions taking all available resources, including your feedbacks. But then, the most difficult part is to act in favour of the whole group of pilots. That is what we tried to achieve in our Collective Agreement. The fact that article 10 (about compensation of NAFB) is altered by an individual bidding (EUR+), is not acceptable. We will continue to fight to have the compensation on a monthly basis, as defined in the CBO. While we are in favour of a system with different levels of flexibility amongst pilots, we don’t want a system that creates division.

Negotiations for the CBO will start in the coming weeks.

We recently managed to negotiate to keep the production on our B767 in house. Our pilots on the B767 will give a lot of flexibility, thereby freeing up production on the B737 that can benefit our peak captains.

As said, your feedback is important, but the importance of reporting cannot be stressed enough.

Everybody recognises that safety information is the key to a performant safety system. But do we report enough? Have you ever not reported because you thought it would not change anything or because you were afraid of consequences or for any other reason?
While our Dutch colleagues are known for reporting everything, I personally feel that we could do a better job in reporting. This is the only way we can improve safety.