I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with many here. Nothing has really changed in the last 10 years. An integrated course is a 'higher' qualification than modular in the eyes of most airlines. It is still by far the best way if your ambition is to walk out of flight school and straight into a jet job. I know that isn't happening right now but in 2 years time I think it will start happening again. I appreciate that many can't afford integrated, and there are many equally able pilots coming through the modular route, but my advice is if you can afford it and want a conventional airline career, integrated is still best IF you can afford it and won't bankrupt your family if you can't get a job for a couple of years.
Don't forget that in 2 1/2 years time the age legislation will be 5 years old ie) many pilots will be reaching 60 and how many are really going to carry on past 60? Nobody really knows but hopefully many will retire or at least go part time. There will hopefully be a retirement bulge just as the economy picks up and that should mean lots of recruitment. I know it seems a long way off in the current climate but Willie Walsh as publicly said he expects the downturn to last 2 years. Perhaps I wouldn't start training right now but maybe give it a year and aim to graduate in Autumn 2011 and that should be about right I think. In a year's time we should have a better outlook.
Of course if we see more redundancies in the UK between now and then that may slow things down a bit, but fingers crossed we will be able to ride this out.
Also if you look at the number of people who post the same questions over and over again on this forum it shows that the flyer exhibition is a great way for some one considering an airline career to get these questions answered directly by the airlines and FTOs. It's a good place to start your research. So I would advise people to go. And those complaining about spending £8.50 well for %**&%s sake how much are you planning to spend on a course? £50-100k? I think the cost is irrelevant.