All,
I am in my early thirties, in full time employment but looking for a career change. I am based in the UK. I have spent a bit of time interpreting and understanding the costs for my own benefit and thought I’d share my work. In the PDF attachement below is a summary document that details the different training routes and associated costs.
These costings and comparisons are my judgement only and should not be used to actually inform any decisions! Go and talk to a financial adviser!
My costings are specific to my situation and particularly note that:
· I have a mortgage therefore any accommodation costs will be in addition to this.
· My job currently pays ~£45,000pa. Doing a full time training course would obviously stop me earning.
There are three flavours of training that I have considered:
- Integrated ATPL that is not part of a cadet programme
- Integrated MPL as part of generation easyJet cadet programme
- Modular ATPL
The integrated ATPL is the course at Oxford. The Integrated MPL with generation easyJet cadet programme is the L3 course. I have based the modular costs on various posted costings and Flying Time Aviation.
On the easyJet MPL course there is a training bond of £69,000 that MAY get paid back to you over the course of 7 to 9 years (if you are based in the UK). I have very little further information on this but I have included as a consideration at face value.
It’s worth noting as well that I think in a lot of the proposed costings put forward on this thread for a modular ATPL they omit the cost of MCC and type rating, although many allude to the fact they have a lot of money left over (compared to an integrated course) to complete it.
For both the integrated routes without cadet programme and the modular ATPL a lot of the posts seem to forget to consider the “down” time between finishing the training and getting a pilot job. This is obviously mitigated somewhat if you stay in current employment while training (on a modular course) as you aren’t necessarily “losing” anything (still getting paid £45,000pa) but if you enter in to training without a job you have the uncertainty at the end of training and potentially a significant period where you aren’t earning. A year out of employment would quickly make the costs significantly higher when looked at as a whole.
The big thing that I haven’t accounted for is loan repayment costs, particularly interest. This is obviously a major flaw in the “total cost” value. I have assumed that the costs are based on self funding up front. Again, talk to a financial adviser.
In summary:
Actually comparing the costs in my calculations you can see that for me the modular route is much cheaper (£84,000 compared to £180,000+). However, this assumes that I can complete the modular course all while working full time. I think it’s doable but would be challenging! I think for anyone already in employment, particularly with a significant salary, it doesn’t make any sense to go down the integrated route. Instead if you keep your current job while going down the modular route is by far the most sensible option. What I think is interesting is that by my calculations the total cost of training for a modular course at £84,000 isn’t as significant a difference to the integrated MPL course training cost at £100,000 as many would have you believe.
For a young person with no other financial commitments and no significant income yet I could see how a cadet based integrated MPL course could actually be the most attractive option. Especially given that there is a semi-guaranteed job at the end (with associated guaranteed salary), there is no double accounting for accommodation (you have to live somewhere) and the possibility of some of the training costs being repaid to you via the training bond (maybe?!). Obviously this raises the issue of a young person with no significant income being able to raise the funds!
I see absolutely no benefit in undertaking an integrated course that ISN’T a cadet course, either ATPL or MPL. You have all of the negative costs without any of the guaranteed employment at the end (even noting the links that the training centres have to place students in to airline jobs at the end). In addition, a review of the available jobs shows a significant reduction in the number of airlines that employ newly qualified pilots, for example easyJet requires a minimum of 500 hours, therefore employment as a new pilot is really only available via the cadet programme.
The final thing to mention is of course non-financial considerations. For me, with a house, wife and commitments in the UK, swanning off for a few months to go flying in NZ/Europe and training in London/Oxford isn’t actually that appealing. This is a further draw to the modular approach where I can choose my training locations.