Guy's I'd just like to focus on Type Rating costs. If you take the OAT placement statistics as of today then Ryanair are the lead recruiter of OAT students from 2007 (57) and so far in 2008 (11).
I recently completed my TR with Ryanair and the cost overall was approximately £25,700. This included:
TR cost inc. Dutch VAT
An extra sim plus retest after an initial partial on the LST. (You must budget for this!),
Reasonable accommodation (e25 per night),
Spending money for food,
Flight's to and from Amsterdam.
(All at today's exchange rates when the money was spent in Euros)
Add this to WISH2FLY's calculations and you get an estimated total of approximately £103,000.
This is a snap shot and peoples costings will be slightly different. I highlighted Ryanair as an example as the majority of OAT guys go there.
Other airlines have different Type Rating arrangements. You may get free accommodation and other allowances. With the vast majority of airlines you will likely be bonded which means they give you extra money (normally tax free) on top of your salary to pay the bank back for the type rating costs (usually over 5-7 years). It still means you take on the risk and you have to find the money and pay it all up. You will then be on a cadet salary as a result. You then have to pay your £75,000ish initial training costs out of that.
Other snap shots..
Flybe will give you a free type rating but the salary is very low. I don't know how the guys can sustain themselves. Maybe people who have gone the integrated route and arrived at Flybe as a cadet can give us the lowdown?
BA and BMI (i believe) will give you free (i use that term loosely) Type Ratings. Whilst I'd be very pleased getting a place with BA the cadet salary is again initially about £28,000 pa (not inc allowances and flight pay etc).
My point isn't to micro analyse different packages but to say DON'T FORGET TYPE RATING COSTs! A more realistic figure to band around for overall training costs to become an airline pilot (if you go for OAT/FTE/Cabair. Not CTC as the TR is free) is about 100k for the lot..