if a world airline like BA prefer Integrated students, then surely Integrated is the one to go for? (providing you can afford it).
Really? Ask yourself why you want to fly for a living. Is it (a) because you love flying, or (b) because you have your heart set on a particular employer (in this case BA). If it's answer (b) beware - I can pretty much guarantee that by the time you have been through all the grief of training, spending many thousands of pounds and sending out countless CVs, you really won't care who you end up flying with. The average wannabe will give anything, do anything for a job with
anyone.
Focusing on one particular employer's recruitment policies is a therefore a mistake, IMHO. Take a wider perspective; the four biggest employers of pilots in the UK are BA, Ryanair, Easyjet and Flybe. BA we have discussed, and I believe
Mad Jock has hit the nail on the head with them. Ryanair couldn't care less where or how you got your licence, so long as you can pay for their type rating. Easyjet, when they recruit low-hour candidates, have a well established relationship with CTC - which is modular. Flybe have absolutely no preference one way or the other. Not much reason to spend a load of extra cash on an integrated course, is it?
To try and answer your original question, if there is a slight preference in favour of integrated
in some quarters, it's because integrated candidates are generally more of a known quantity. The school have seen the person from day one of training, and can give an employer a greater overview of their talents and weaknesses. It's much harder for an airline to assess someone's training record if they have been to the US for their CPL, then back to the UK for an IR which they started with one school and finished with another. You get the point.
However, don't think that having 'integrated' on your CV automatically makes you a better or more attractive candidate. There are some extremely good modular establishments out there with long track records of producing top quality airline pilots. From the horse's mouth at Flybe - "We are very impressed with the quality of the product of X." And it wasn't an integrated school.