As someone who did the FlyBe sponsorship many years ago I can tell you that the sponsorship doesn't cost FlyBe anything and infact I would go so far as to say that they profit for it. Candidate pays for all selection tests (Cabair makes profit) and then the Cadet puts up £45,000 ish for the course. I was told during my time that this covered the ENTIRE course cost as Cabair offers a discount to attract airline cadets as it is good for their image and also it is a guaranteed income for the 12-15 students per year that go through. On top of that once you start at Flybe you get paid substantially less than direct entry pilots for the first five years to 'recoup' training costs. As far as I see it this is pure profit for the airline in that over 5 years each canditate loses £20,000 in wages, if you multiply that by the 12 cadets then that is over £200,000 saved over direct hiring. And at the end of the day Flybe gets to publish a nice photo in Flyer/Flight International of the Cadets graduating.
Having said that, I went through it and now fly for another major airline on large jets and wouldn't trade it for the world because regardless of what flybe profit from it, a sponsorship always looks good on the c.v and the £45,000 outlay is still the cheapest way of doing the integrated course in the UK.
