The thought that anyone is willing to lay £100 K plus at the moment to pursue a career in aviation is astounding and the ATOs should be laying out the pitfalls before allowing anyone to sign on the dotted line.
There are hundreds if not thousands of U.K. pilots currently not flying and there are many thousands more waiting for the axe come in September when furlough comes to an end, as others have said it’s going to get very nasty and there will (if the government don’t do anything about it) be more airlines failing, airports closing and airlines shrinking. Even post COVID the green lobby will campaign for a smaller aviation industry and their voice is getting louder by the day, add to this the push away from two pilot operations in the cruise and potentially single pilot operations in the future (utter insanity but the dollar is king)I just don’t see the mythical pilot shortage every happening.
I have been flying for nearly 30 years, first in the military, then turboprops and have been at a flag carrier for the last 7 or so years, have I enjoyed it? Absolutely, would I recommend it to my kids? Probably not, certainly not the civil side and certainly not at the price being quoted.
I think a lot of people believe flying will be a little work followed by days lying on the beach drinking and chatting to Cabincrew before flying back for a few hours, those jobs do exist but only for a small minority, what they don’t envisage is the night freight at EMA, the howling gales at LSI, the fourth 4 sector day starting at 0500, the 4 1/2 hour flight to TFS or LCA followed by cleaning the cabin and flying straight back ( which raises the age old question “where did you go today?” Followed by “somewhere lovely but I didn’t leave the airport….”) the min rest down route if you are lucky enough to actually get to see the city, the minimum turnarounds, the constant push from management to save money and ultimately the selling of your soul to some disrespectful company just to fly.
Would I leave aviation if I has any other skill sets? Yes especially after the last 16 months - unfortunately I don’t think I will have a lot of choice come September and like thousands of others I will be given no choice.
As others have said be very careful and don’t throw away that hard earned cash chasing a dream that probably no longer exists.