There is too much commercialism in the aviation today. Thanks to the EU & liberal idea that made privatization of state aviation enterprises all over the continent possible. It's all about money for smart business mans in private aviation companies. They want to make huge profit without risking a cent.
On the other side - we risk 100k EUR during our study, we have to maintain our licenses and why shall we risk 100-400 EUR on job interviews & additional 30-40k EUR on TR courses?! Meanwhile passengers are flying for 20 EUR with all those wonderful & innovative low-cost & ACMI carriers?
We have to change the game. The airlines wouldn't exist without pilots.
It is in our interest to require a fully paid TR through a bond & good salary.
That is why they are "commercial airlines." The clue is in the title! It is all about supply and demand. Whereas once the supply of experienced pilots to airlines was sourced from the military and other commercial operators. Those sources only provided a balanced supply at a relatively high cost. In other words relatively high wages and good ancillary terms and conditions. As you progressed further and further up the totem pole, so the rewards became greater in order to attract that "talent." In a capitalist world that isn't something unique to airlines, it is a widespread
modus operandi across all businesses.
The growth of lo-cost airlines (and again the clue is in the title) sought to reduce all of their controllable input costs. That was achieved by increasing the supply such that the balance was achieved at a much lower price point. The "experience" requirements were shifted from the right seat to the left seat, and regulation changes facilitated and enabled those changes. The floodgates were opened to an entire "X factor" generation of people who no longer needed to follow traditional experience pathways to airlines, yet they (erroneously) clung on to the idea that success would be rewarded the way it always had been until that point.
The growing oversupply achieved the goal of bringing the balanced price point (wages and T&C's) way down. I would suggest it has a very long to go before the supply/demand curves reach any sort of equilibrium in the foreseeable future. By starting in the right place, it was inevitable that the lower input costs would in time spread across to the left seat, and sure enough they have.
There is an obvious paradox in these forums being awash with people who strive to reduce their own costs, yet seem perplexed that commercial airline companies would do the same. The reality of the world is that there is a great deal of experience "for sale" and the price (wages) of that experience is falling in real terms. When it comes to "inexperience" (and that is of relevance to these specific forums/threads/posts) the supply is simply huge, with no signs (at the current levels of experience requirement) of that getting any more balanced anytime soon.
I would recommend a viewpoint that assumes flight training, and houses, and cars, and boats, etc. will be "eye-wateringly" expensive in the future. Supply and demand is likely to ensure this remains the case, and competition will continue to ensure the survival of the fittest.
Anyway these are broader issues that deviate this thread off track, and perhaps it needs steering back to jobs for FTE grads as a specific issue.