What TolTol said was true, EI loved degrees for their cadets no matter how irrelevant they were. But there won't be cadets this time. That was then and this is now. Back in the good old days with the economy shot, people with degrees coming out of their ears had to emigrate to get a decent job and Aer Lingus seemed an attractive option. Every job was oversubscribed and competitive. Not any more.
I've heard the figure of 100 pilots been required (rumours, rumours). Obviously the ex cadets will get the first preference but after that who knows. One thing for sure there will be no more cadet sponsorship. If anything it will be like the Ryanair/Cityjet idea, they select you and you pay 100k for your training. Most likely though they will be taking rated pilots or turboprop (Aer Arann) pilots and low timers just out of flight school. This is good news for everyone concerned. They will probably take people from other airlines thus opening vacancies for others to fill. In the meantime Aer Arann just bought ten new ATR's and will need more pilots for them and to replace those lost to Lingus, Easy, Ryan et al.
So if you want to fly for EI or anybody, go out and get trained and stop waiting for the mythical cadetships to return.
As for preferential treatment for Irish pilots, certainly I believe they would like Irish pilots simply because and Irish pilot is more likely to stay around for a while once he has bought his pad in Swords or Malahide. That is probably true of most Irish airlines except Ryanair. The same could be said of most airlines in other countries. Others are more likely to move on if a vacancy comes up in their home country or in the 'worlds favourite airline'. But don't imagine being Irish will allow you to meet a lower standard. EI were always fussy, unnecessarily so in my opinion. It remains to be seen as to what they look for. They will get applications simply because it's Aer Lingus, mine being one. But we will have to wait and see.
In practice though, from what I've seen there are simply not enough Irish wannabees coming down the pipe. The combined efforts of the JAA and the IAA have seen to that. So there are opportunities for everyone particularly British willing to make the move across the water. If you are Irish and qualified there has never been a better time to get the airline job in Ireland and I mean never. Every Irish airline seems to be recruiting. If you don't get the job this time you are simply not good enough. Give it up and go back to IT or whatever you did before.
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