The Whitetail route still seems popular as the bank of mum and dad are still willing to foot the £100,000+ bill when they're led to believe it's the only available option for becoming an airline pilot. With more options than ever arising for modular students, I hope L3 hopefuls are seriously considering what they're really getting for their money (instagram bragging rights sitting in an A320 simulator?).
My problem is not the quality of training from L3, it's that they have been able to drive the costs of training through the roof and discouraged a lot of talented people from becoming pilots due to the perceived cost and marketing hype that's extruded from the mouths of recruitment staff.
I'm a modular student so you could say I'm biased towards it, however I'd like to think I'm not. I've weighed up my options and I can complete my training debt free in a timeframe not far off an integrated student. What I would like is for recruitment to consider both integrated and modular students equally and hire the best candidates for the job, not the ones that can afford to go to a privileged, expensive ATO.