Ryanair Porto agency to direct in two years: the Crewlink year, the conversion, the Portuguese base life
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#1 Ryanair Porto, two years, converted from Crewlink to the direct Malta Air contract at 14 months, and João's Portuguese comparison and Maria's TAP threads describe Ryanair Porto as the plan B. Here it is from inside the plan B, for the Porto and Lisbon applicants who will start here.
The Crewlink year
The agency contract, as Marco and Liam and Kate have described: the lower basic, the sector pay, the training cost arrangement, statutory sick pay only, no pension beyond the legal minimum, and the conversion as the thing everyone waits for. At Porto the conversion has been coming at 12 to 16 months for the crew with clean records and the base need. Mine was 14. The year was hard money for hard work, exactly as every agency thread says, and I would not do it twice and I do not regret it.
The conversion
A letter, a new contract with Malta Air (the Portuguese base is a Malta Air one, as Liam's thread explains), the Portuguese tax arrangements on a Maltese contract (an accountant conversation, as Marco said for Italy), the better basic, the company sick pay, the pension contribution. The day the conversion letter came was a better day than the wings.
The Porto base
Mid sized, growing, the UK and the French and the Swiss and the German routes (the Portuguese diaspora in France and Switzerland and Luxembourg fills the flights year round, which is the Porto base's winter protection), the Lisbon and the islands domestic, the summer sun to the Mediterranean. Home every night. The crew are Portuguese with a few Brazilians and Spaniards. The Porto base is the Gdańsk of the Ryanair network: the diaspora routes make the winter kinder.
The Portuguese base life
Porto is cheaper than Lisbon and the crew live in the city and in Gaia and Matosinhos, 20 to 30 minutes from the airport by metro. The crew room is Portuguese and warm. The commission is good on the French routes (the diaspora buys the sandwiches) and thin on the domestic. A summer month is a decent Porto salary; the agency winter was tight.
The door to TAP and easyJet
Real and used: the Porto crew with two years apply to TAP (the slow one) and easyJet Porto (the Portuguese contract one, as João described) and the Ryanair hours are respected at both. Half my course has moved or is applying. The other half converted and stayed because the Porto base with the diaspora routes and the direct contract is a fine job.
For the Porto applicants
Ask which contract, as Liam says. Expect the agency year. Learn to sell on the French routes. Live near the metro. And know that the conversion comes and that the door to the others opens with the hours.
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#2 Porto, TAP in and Ryanair Porto as the plan B that became the plan, and Paulo has written the plan from inside. The agency year, the conversion at 14 months, the diaspora routes in winter. The door to TAP with the hours is the reason I am applying to both.
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#3 Porto, four applications in, and the Ryanair Porto one is the one that answered first, as Daniel said for Lisbon. Paulo's 'the conversion letter was a better day than the wings' is the sentence that makes the agency year bearable to think about.
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#4 Ryanair Bergamo, and the Porto base being the Gdańsk of the network for the diaspora winter is a good observation: the French and Swiss Portuguese fill the flights in January as the Polish workers fill the Oslo ones. The Malta Air contract and the accountant are the same as ours.
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#5 TAP, and the Ryanair Porto crew who come to the TAP assessment with two years are the ones who pass it fastest, as I wrote. Paulo's base is the training ground for the Portuguese legacy. The conversion and the hours. Both matter.
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#6 Lisbon, and the Ryanair Lisbon base is the Porto base with the Lisbon rent, which is the worse version. Paulo's Porto with the metro and the Gaia flats is the better Ryanair Portugal. Noted for the base preference.
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#7 Ryanair Stansted number one, and the Porto crew on the Stansted route are the ones who sell the most on the UK sectors, which the Porto base's French route training explains. Paulo's crew are good at the trolley.
