One of the main points lost in the credit crunch is that those people who exercised restraint, saved their money and did not borrow wildly are the ones having to pay for those who did borrow money they could not afford whether it was to buy an over priced house or fund training for a career where there is an over supply of wannabes.
It is impossible to get a loan for almost anything yet savers are getting naff all in interest rates. So both borrowers and savers are hit.
It is not so long ago that there was a thread in the forum of people advocating borrowing money to train and then going bankrupt to avoid repaying the loan.
I dont know what it is about this industry that makes people take leave of their senses to want to sit in front of a machine and operate mainly automatic systems and fork out the thick end of £100k to do so. It is not the sort of thing a responsible person should be looking to do. Maybe it is the uniform.
While the wannabes are doing this the airlines are excused the responsibility of selecting and training sane, sensible people and sorting this out before the money is spent (by the airline).
I would not trust the FTOs as far as I could throw them to be objective when someone walks through the door with £000s hanging out of their pockets. After all would a drug dealer try and pursuade a junkie not to buy his stuff on the grounds that it was bad for him?
When its all spent, the wannabe is not the FTOs' problem anymore and they become victims of the market.
I personally know too many marking time as instructors or CC or odd job men, and are finding it even tougher now.
The downturn will get worse. The first industry to recover will be construction (it always is) but not before 2010 and the rest will slowly follow.
Whilst load factors might seem good, it will because capacity has been cut along with prices and that means less money for investment and growth and pay etc.
I have experienced every recession since the oil crisis in the early 70s and it has never got this bad so quickly and there seems nothing can stop it getting worse. I can find no redeeming features or any scope for optimism.
Merry Christmas.