mountainhead 2007
As someone who started a career in Phils, I would be very annoyed if anyone said anything bad about the Philippines. But in SHBs defence, I can't really see anything condescending in what he/she wrote. I agree that the second post was a little too assuming regarding what PAL would say.
I can verify however that the way the MPL is structured in the UK and the whole EU is airline specific. The first scheme in the UK which was the Flybe/FTE scheme (Flybe is a low cost carrier flying Dash-8s) has a clause where MPL students would automatically be transferred to the fATPL course if the Airline went bust during the training.
This is because the course is Flybe specific. However, if the MPL cadets successfully gain employment at Flybe and the company goes bust or they are made redundant before the magic 1500 hours, then they will be in a very difficult position.
Mountaintop, I must however pick out one point though in your message.
"Also, you will not be able to fly GA (General Aviation) as you do not have a CPL ME/IR
I don't think that was ever the intention."
It is very very risky to embark on pilot training and think that you will go directly into an airline flying big shiny jets. That is the possible best case scenario. In the UK/USA the time honoured route was to build hours first either by flight instructing, crop spraying, towing gliders, pleasure flights etc. For this, you need a CPL. Now with an MPL, you will not be able to even do this kind of General Aviation so how will you build hours?
The point is in the EU, no airline will take an MPL license unless the MPL course the pilot completed was for that specific airline. I also know for definite that N.America aren't even touching the MPL. So straight away, the two biggest pilot markets in the world are closed to any MPL cadets at Clark.
Gulf Air I believe has/will be about to embark on an MPL but this is GulfAir focused - like the MPL is supposed to be. So again any Clark pilot who took the genric MPL course would not be able to apply for Gulf.
I believe Mr Narmon is still the top recruitment guy at PAL so I am pretty sure he could give a quick answer if anyone wanted to call him. But remember, considering PAL already have their own school and take 2 batches a year-fATPL, straight away the national carrier of Philippines is another closed door to MPL cadets.
So I too am now interested as to what exactly was told to MPL cadets when they first applied to Clark without a guarantee from Cebu Pacific?
I agree with your comment that it would be interesting to see what happens to non-bupac MPL cadets. The problem is isn't it too late to "wait and see" for this cadets who have spent a lot of money. Singapore Airlines have their own training school along with Cathay Pacific. So I can not see these two SE Asian airlines recruiting MPL cadets from Philippines. I'm sure nationality requirements are also a hindrance too.
So my area of interest is whether non-bupac cadets were informed of these uncertainties before they started their course at Clark?