Climb 150,
I have worked with cadets for over 20 years and speak from experience rather than “what somebody has told me.” Those airlines that have cadet programmes have traditionally taken pilots with little or no experience into those programmes as a full time course of approved training. That training has traditionally taken 12-18 months. There is nothing new in this, it was happening back in the 1960’s. It was an apprenticeship programme where the school dovetailed into advanced training with the sponsoring airline. The training was by definition always integrated. At the conclusion of the course the student obtained their licence with around 200-250 hours of flying time, but the course was all geared to the receiving airlines requirements.
For pilots obtaining their licence by any other civilian method in their own time, at their own pace, and institutes of their choice the requirements involved a minimum of 700 hours. If you wanted to go “bush flying in Africa” for remuneration you would likely have had a minimum of 700 hours before you ever could! Trust me, I spent thousands of hours doing just that. Airlines wouldn’t give you the time of day unless you had thousands of hours of similar experience, and even when they did it was likely to be on a turboprop or if you were very lucky a small jet.
When JAA (the forerunner) of EASA came into being, they harmonised the commercial licensing requirements (quite distinct to any preference most Airlines had). All forms of remunerated “aerial work” then required a CPL whereas that hadn’t previously been the case ( you could previously instruct for money with a PPL and an Instructors rating). This brought the system more into line with ICAO requirements and indeed those that long existed in the USA under their FAR’s. It didn’t mean that a 250 hour CPL holder suddenly became the airlines golden ticket.
The 200 hour airline pilot is a relatively rare commodity and certainly always has been. The idea that every 250 hour CPL holder is just what the airlines want despite this conspiracy that it depends on a modular/integrated argument isn’t generally true.