Working as Cabin Crew...
This idea has been used previously by British Airways in the past and it seemed to work very well. Admittedly those guys were cadets with nothing to pay and the Flybe guys will need to begin paying there loans. Monthly cash in the bank and working within the airline is better than sitting at home, my feeling would be those guys and girls have made a wise decision. The old addage out of sight out of mind comes to mind.
As for the hold pool it is peppered with high to very low hours pilots. Obviously as those in the pool are not yet employed there is no seniority which in essence means Flybe like all airlines can pick and choose who they Rate first. My guess would be courses made up of a mixture of experienced and low hour pilots as the dynamics tend to work better during the training. As for sponsored and MPL cadets I believe the MPL guys need to complete the rating to complete the MPL unfortunately this may mean they do leapfrog the pool.
Still don't dispare I fully believe Flybe will start training new joiners before the MPL guys get their chance. I believe the final E145 pilots will be rated on the Q400 by the end of July... There are still Q400 deliveries in the pipeline and they need to be crewed.
Keep up the swimming guys and gals you are nearly there.
Roller