Sadly 2unlimited is right. They have no shortage of potential low hours recruits at Flybe among other airlines as well.
I have had several attempts to get in there, once directly where I did get an interview but ballsed it up with a borderline fail but I was told to try again in 12 months. The second time was after completing an MCC/JOC with an organisation who said they would put me in front of Flybe or other airlines. They did, and I got rejected by Flybe for not having the 50 hours they now require. The fact that I had been doing some scenic flying on the south coast plus the sim hours (which counted towards the 50) saw me just get over the line but it still wasn't enough. This is where the training organisation probably should have pushed back, but they didn't so I am still here in my office in London writing this post. I have since spoken to Flybe HR directly and they have said that would see me if I can get the 50 hours, so it's not totally dead in the water, but the long and the short of it is that there are plenty of low hour guys and girls out there and this is not where the airlines are struggling, so they can be a little more selective. It's their train set so it's their rules essentially.
As another 46 year old low hours (380 hours) pilot with a missus and a small child to consider, I can relate only too well to what the guys on here are feeling. I have had a total of two interviews out of many applications, Flybe being one of them. In fact most applications have been met with little more than silence, so it is hard to make progress if you don't know where you are falling down.
I have been to several of the Pilot Careers days at Heathrow and Gatwick and spoken to many HR people directly including Eastern and West Atlantic, both of whom I would happily fly with. Eastern want 1000 hours due to insurance because of a lot of their route network and I know that West Atlantic won't look at you unless you have a 737 TR. Skydiving and some of the smaller survey operations want a minimum of 500 hours too, again due to insurance. That's the catch, at least with what I have found.
For me, the cost of keeping current on top of ridiculous child care cost has meant I have been out of the air since I did my MEIR reval at the start of the year which isn't exactly helpful for job hunting but that's life. I am about to move out of the UK due to getting a new job in my current line of work which will see me in central Europe. Happily there is a large airport nearby which have several FTO's and clubs based there. The self hire flying will be cheaper and so will an instructor rating from what I have seen, so I will get back up into the air again soon enough with any luck. There also appears to be a need to teach aviation English so it might be another way in, even if only part time. It isn't what I had in mind when I started this little adventure 10 years ago but hey, it is what it is. I may still be able to crack the regional or busjet market in time, but for now I have to be happy with what I have done to get here and hopeful that it may still pay off one day, but I have to pay the bills in the meantime..
Apologies for what turned into a long rambling post, but aviation is a little more interesting than financial operations so I may have gotten a little carried away...
Best of luck to all of you out there though. Hopefully something will come up.
AngusR