TheBeak
You seem a little bitter and twisted. Has CTC rejected you in the past? You seem to really have it in for CTC and it appears to be your personal mission to stop as many people as possible going there. You should focus your energy on positive things as positive people are far more happy than negative folk.
We are in very difficult times, people are losing their jobs in all industries and the airlines are no exception. With this being the case it's understandable that the wings pool will be swelling, but they've been in this situation before. In early 2006 the pool was empty and people were going straight to the airlines as soon as they completed their training (and I mean the very next day) but by June of 2006 this stopped and by November there were about 80 people in the pool. All of those 80 people got permanent jobs in 2007.
I personally believe that if you have the ability to make it as a commercial pilot CTC is the best place to go. I say this for 2 reasons. 1, having been the safety pilot for a brand new CTC Cadet on the 737 I can tell you that he was fantastic and I've heard similar stories from other pilots so I do believe that their training is very good. (I was an ATPer so wasn't trained by CTC) Secondly nearly every other first officer and numerous captains at easyJet are ex CTC, there's hundreds of us. I'm not sure where I'd be now if it wasn't for CTC but no other companies were answering my letters or acknowledging my CV despite the fact I had a fATPL. I honestly believe that I'd still be doing my old job.
Easyjet cannot afford to take on new pilots at the moment as they are struggling with seasonal issues, they have too many pilots spare in the winter and not enough pilots to run the summer programme. That said, they still have loads of aircraft on order and as soon as the market turns they will once again have a huge appetite for new pilots. Where do you think they will turn to when this happens? CTC and easyJet have a very good relationship and I'm sure many future cadets will go to easyJet and when easyJet decide they want pilots for permanent contracts they will keep their Cadets rather than training new pilots.
The only question really is when to start training (regardless of whether you train at CTC or not). Nobody can answer that because even the best business minds cannot agree on when the downturn will end. All I can say is I'd like to be in that pool when the market picks up and not 18 months of training away from it. You are suggesting 5 years which is in keeping with your negativity, my guess would be a year but then I'm usually very positive and I suspect neither of us have any basis for our predictions.
SW