Integrated or Modular ATPL? Neither
Integrated or Modular? Neither.
My advice is simple: the only ‘non-direct’ route into a flying career today is an airline authorised integrated ‘MPL package’. By ‘MPL package’ I mean you’ll have to pay for the MPL, the type rating and your line training too. Today the co-pilot’s seat is sold to the highest bidder.
I question the point of an fATPL, be it modular or integrated. Ryanair seem to be taking integrated fATPL’s but no other UK airline of note does. As for a modular fATPL: it seems to be untouchable these days (not in yesteryear). Anyway the ATPL badly needs dragging out of the 1950’s. The MPL is the basis for future airline training in EASA, like it or not.
Instructing to gain experience? Ha! Forget instructing. Airlines aren’t interested. FI’s go to the back of the queue and pay up for a type rating like everyone else; there are no favours on the seniority conveyor belt. So why delay the inevitable cash outlay? Anyway 250 hours integrated MPL is considered greatly superior to 2,500 hours fATPL, however gained.
You can see why integrated MPL is the only way forward for airlines: training becomes a profit centre and eliminates employment obligations. The self funded cadets are pre-selected by the airlines to meet their own quality standards, the cadet pays for the integrated MPL, type rating and line training courses according to the airlines own SOP’s, rendering them virtual indentured labour. Should the airline not need the cadets, they are simply chopped, at zero cost to the airline.
Is the sale of co-pilot seats to the highest bidder sensible? Ask the relatives of most of the recent crashes where over reliance on automatics and a lack of basic flying skills scream from the accident reports. But as long as insurance actuaries don’t think there’s a problem and the accountant-ocracy running the airlines prioritise their annual bonuses, this is the way of the world.
The MPL package is ingenious. It’s all upside to the airlines and plays on the compelling nature of flying and the wannabees’ need for instant gratification, none of which makes economic sense. Indeed I foresee a time when co-pilots will always pay their employer to fly and even at captaincy the urge to fly will one day render the left seat a profit centre. It’s beginning already.
ATPL’s, MPL’s, type ratings and line training require enormous personal outlays for the privilege of flying our tattooed, shaven headed brethren to Benidorm for the cost of a few pints of beer. But there are more takers than ever from whom airlines can now select the cream - at zero cost.
The MPL is exactly suited to modern airline operations and provides the airline with control over cadet quality. And it turns a profit. Perfect. Neither the integrated ATPL nor the modular alternative offers any of these benefits.
Finally, if you think the integrated ‘MPL package’ is expensive, count yourself lucky that EASA will never impose the FAA’s 1,500 hour rule. If they did, buying your way into the cockpit would be well beyond the already drastic step of remortgaging your parent’s home for the privilege.