Originally Posted by
wheels_down
It appears that may operators globally are targeting cadets in layoffs.
At SQ cadets layed off were still under training, therefore at the bottom of the seniority list and the first to be targeted. That's similar to what other carriers are doing, cadets or not. Airlines in the USA are furloughing plenty of pilots at the bottom of the seniority list too, no cadets over there. Don't forget that in most of the world outside the US (partially in Australia) "cadets" (those trained to multicrew jobs straight after initial training) are the norm, not the exception.
However it appears our operators have yet to drop the axe on such programs, as I am aware of one who is still ‘business as normal’.
They wouldn't want to. You're training people for a decades long career. This pandemic and recession will pass. Baby boomers are retiring. Developing world and Asia industrializing and growing, these factors will be back in play in the next 5 years, and by decade's end we'll all be back in it again. It'll be those who trained via an affiliated airline's cadet or ab initio course who are first in line to be recruited too, before anyone from GA. This is the way airlines are headed and the speed bump of the current recession will not change that.
The real issue for cadets is the inability to fly out their airline due lack of experience.
You sure? If it's MPL you're talking about then there was a case in the UK where an airline training MPL cadets went bust, the cadets were allowed to continue their MPL after being recruited into another airline after a short conversion. However since no Australian airlines use MPL it's not relevant. All here are trained for a CPL, so they're in the same boat as any trainee pilot, except they are a known quantity to the airline during their training, and would be the first in line for recruitment when it restarts. This has been the case here previously (airlines with big gaps in hiring dates looked at their own unemployed cadets first before considering external candidates).