Have you ever lived in a different (assumption that you’re British, sorry if you’re not) country besides CTC? If not, and you think you can make the finances work even at a stretch, I’d take the Spanish base. You’ll more or less always be able to get back to gatwick (obviously this is a bit brexit dependent) and it is a really enjoyable experience operating from a smaller base. I started in a French base before moving to LGW, and wouldn’t have changed it for anything. Yes, moving country was a bit daunting. Yes, attempting to do anything formal like bank accounts etc was a bit of a nightmare, but there’ll be people in base who will likely offer to help if you ask for it.

Starting in a small base is is a fantastic way to enter the industry - you’ll get to know the people you fly with and this will help your learning at the early stages. When all is said and done if you decide you don’t like it, you can leave and take it as a good experience.

Take LGW if you can. I’m STN based, a great place to be if you’re near retirement as I am.

As a pilot LGW is going to be more challenging and will give you a lot of exposure to different destinations and interesting airports.
Very impersonal base though, with 70+ planes based.

If what you are looking for is quality of life, good weather, food and fun things to do, even with less money at the end of the month (debatable, SOs and FOs don’t have great conditions in either base), Barcelona is probably a bit more enjoyable than Crawley (or London, but that’s personal I guess), and that’s an understatement.

Having experienced quite a few different eJ bases so far I would say take LGW to start. Mini bases are great for lifestyle once you’re older and sorted with command etc, but initially you will get very bored doing the same route over and over, and over again. To develop you need exposure to different destinations, different captains with “differing” outlooks.

Having seen what I’ve seen now, I’d start at LGW and then if you fancy some sun and nice food get yourself on the MXP list as soon as you can. At least you retain the route network and actually make some money to pay off the loan!

Being limited to fly on a 9 routes network, with always the same bloody people, is for sure a boring job. Of course the weather and food can only be better at BCN/PMI than it is at LGW/STN. But be aware also that Barcelona area (downtown and nearby the airport) is now a very expensive place to live as opposed to Alicante or Almeria. Also, be careful with little bases as they might suddenly close down when the accountant manager finds out they are not making enough cash over there.