There is NO evidence that those SELECTED for a SSTR in Easy or Ryanair are any more of a risk to the travelling public than any other pilot recruited into the airlines from Legacy to LoCo.
A proper selection proceedure weeds out in the early stages those who are less committed and who may not fit into the airlines profile.
It is NOT the "I can pay take me" that people here think get onto these schemes, its the dedicated hard working boys and grils who are prepared to risk everything to get a foot on that ladder, that will achieve.
159 applicants for the Easy positions, surely not all had "Mummy and Daddys" money to pay for the course.
Its not up to us to decry their ability to pay, or run them down for doing so.
The arm chair hero's who post on here have a fair proportion of missinformation and there is a lot of the green eyed monster.
The main culprit for blame has been and still is the company accountant who is seeking any way possible to reduce airline costs.
What people MUST remember is that keeping a company solvent and employing staff, is far better than the company going bust and ruining the lives of their ex-employees.
As for BALPA, well !!! they are only interested in your money as members and their frequent junkets at pilots expense, when it really comes to the bottom line they hide in their offices do not take calls or answer e-mails.
Give yourselves a 1% pay rise leave BALPA, join the IPF if you must have a union represent you, its far cheaper and comes with 25K of legal cover.
Finally Salaries 1972 Turbo Prop F/O (Airline) £1200 per annum
1979 F/O Jet £8500 per annum.
2009 Capt Jet in excess £80000.
2009 F/O Jet in excess £50000