CTC was the "third way" as you call it because at the time it was an excellent way into the airlines, with the boom hiring times you were almost certain to get a permanant job contract at the end of training. It was possibly slightly less expensive than FTE or Oxford, and well known and quite highly regarded within the industry.
However that is not the case now. Gradual increases in the real cost of the course, paying for foundation flight training on top of the 60k, that 60k now up to 69k etc means that there is much more parity between it and other training organisations. Loan repayments would now be up to over £1300 a month, based on that sort of outlay. As a new FO at a lot of airlines you'd be struggling to break the £3000 a month barrier, if that. Maybe more like £2700-2800. 7 to 8 years to pay back at a minimum.
And that's before we get to the real problem, no permanent jobs with the state of the market as it is and quite possibly none for a very long time. What's to stop any airline only taking on contract FO's in the high demand season ad infinitum. So you get paid £1000 a month plus maybe a few '00 in sector pay. You can't pay back that loan and live.
The benefits of CTC or any other integrated course have been shot down i'm afraid, certainly for the moment, much better to go modular now if at all and spread your training and cost risk out.
That's the reality.
WBV
Last edited by Wing_Bound_Vortex; 3rd May 2009 at 00:08.