Originally Posted by CamelhAir
Hmm, sounds very much like propaganda. I SERIOUSLY doubt there are that many fools out there, what with most other airlines recruiting.
Virtually every airline on this list is recruiting big time, some are seriously stuck for pilots. There is a LOT out there. Low hour guys are getting recruited in a big way in a lot of companies.
Actually, I do believe it! At Virgin, we have probably several thousand applicants on file. Many aren't qualified for the job either through lack of experience, the wrong licence, or lack of EU residency rights, but they apply anyway. We are looking for around 120 pilots this year, but it's now pretty difficult to find the kind of people we want - especially as we don't take people with less than around 3000 commercial hours.
Other airlines are less demanding of their applicants, but they still don't want to fill all of their new-joiner courses with ab-initio pilots as that creates quite serious experience gaps in the workforce. It also loads the training system hugely, as Ryanair are discovering. Therefore, even though there are many thousands of wannabe pilots out there (and not just from UK), it might be difficult for an airline to get the mix of experience it would like.
Scroggs