As you are not a pilot M Taylor you may or may not be aware of why Cadet schemes have become more popular with operators that previously found no need for them. I'm refering to the regional and second level operators. Qantas of course have employed a mixture of cadets and general entry candidates for years. Many major Asian airlines employ cadets because the trickle from their Air forces have been unable to satisfy demand and there is no other source of local pilots.
The interest in Cadet schemes by smaller regional airlines is a fairly recent phenomenon. The reasons for this is simple, the inexorble death of General Aviation, and the continiual pressure on wages and conditions. As a consequence, there are simply not enough people in the general population willing to take up the profession. This was brought home to many regional airline managers during the previous expansion of the major Australian airlines. The villiage idiot could see it coming, but no attempt to compete for the available experienced pilots was made. While every other industry accepts that to hang onto a finite resource, wages and conditions must rise, the airline industry has been unwilling to embrace this fundamental fact. Did you know that a kitchen hand at most remote mine sites (not even a cook) earns more per year than both the Captain and First Officer combined on the flight decks of many Australian regional airliners! The First Officer on the Colgan Airlines crash in Buffalo NY last year, was on an income of $16.5K P/A!!!
My point is, the only reason we are seeing an increase in cadet programs in areas where previously there was no need, is purely because these are the only people (usually young and naive) that the regional airlines can attract in sufficient numbers to justify not having to compete for labour!
