IMHO, airline sponsorship schemes exist for two reasons:
Firstly, to keep the government off the industry's back. The Government (at least the Treasury) considers that all pilot training ab initio should be paid for by the industry. That line is regularly churned out in their justification for charging VAT on training fees, as companies can claim the VAT back. If all sponsorship schemes were cancelled full stop the government would castigate the industry for being elitist etc. (despite the fact that plenty of humble people manage to self-sponsor). During bad times industry can get away with not running CEP schemes, but governments (of any colour) would get seriously shirty if it never happened, as there are few major careers in the UK where training fees are not at least in part paid for by either industry or the government.
Secondly, it is a prestige thing for some airlines. This is the only other justification I can think of.
I don't buy the argument that airlines need to sponsor to guarantee a reliable supply of high-calibre pilots - the last ten years have proven that there is a relatively large oversupply of unemployed or instructing CPL/IRs at all points in the economic cycle.
Nor do I buy the argument that CEPs are more loyal - airlines will get loyalty from DEPs by bonding for a type rating anyway, plus much of the loyalty that CEPs give to their sponsoring company comes from the fact that the airlines that sponsor tend to be those at the top of the food chain with the best remuneration/best crew lifestyles/best crew employment prospects etc. etc.
It must be possible for an airline to construct a scheme to deliver a reliable and relatively large supply of low-hour DEPs with no airline experience who are 'airline material'. Even if a major selection process were required over and above that usually used to filter more experienced DEPs, surely it would still be much cheaper than running a CEP scheme (especially a fully-funded one like BA's)? After all an Instrument Rating skills test pass is one hell of an initial filter to applicants, and it costs nothing to a hiring company to demand a CPL/IR as an application pre-requisite.
It is therefore surprising that none try to do this. Either they know something that I don't (quite feasible), or they are just overlooking a big cost-saving opportunity. In fact, thinking about it, there are two schemes that do exactly this however they are both small, one is the Astraeus/pprune scheme (in its infancy; long may it continue), the other is not directly run by an airline and requires payment of course fees as a part of the selection process: CTC's ATP scheme.
Overall, I agree with the posters above, with such a large pool of self-sponsored CPL/IRs sat around unemployed/instructing, the industry would be seriously wasting money and resources by running CEP schemes so soon after the Sep-11 shock without attempting to capture the better of those unemployed pilots already with licenses (this does not necessarily mean those with the highest hours). However in my position I would say that, wouldn't I?
cheers!
foggy.
(edited because I forgot about Astraeus!)
Last edited by foghorn; 10th July 2002 at 11:45.