Aspiring j* cadets:
There is no "low cost" Fuel.
There are no "low cost" Aircraft.
There are no "low cost" Spares.
There are no "low cost" Landing charges.
There are no "low cost"Airport Handling charges*.
Given the small cost of the pilots per seat (typically 1/10 of the airport landing & handling charges alone), it may surprise you to know that for the rest of your career, it will be you that the managers come after to extract cost savings. You ARE the weak link, you are one of the few "cost" items that management can control. Even better if they can turn a profit out of training their crew
The margins that LCC's work on simply do not allow for to pay for training pilots, think about it. There is not a snowflakes chance in hell that this scheme would have passed muster with the board without a business case to show an excellent rate of return. Managers are not going to invest one cent unless they think they will get back their cent plus some.
The intent of these sorts of scheme's is to turn the junior pilots into paying pax. There are enough sufficiently qualified pilots coming through the GA system to satisfy demand, so why start the scheme? REVENUE.
See for yourself, directly from the pilots agreement you will work uper. Remember, it will take around 4 years to before you will have sufficient experience to be a "full" FO.
In that 4 years, your gross income will have just exceeded the cost of your training. In other words, you have spent 5.5 years (1.5 training, 4 years work) of you life effectively without pay. Sure, now you have a qualification & industry experience. As to what you can do with that experience? Who could say. You may well be offered a command somewhere in S.E Asia on local condition for a franchise of j*, perhaps a Middle East carriers will employ you. I think you'll will be lucky to gain an Australian based command.
“Junior First Officer” means a pilot who is appropriately trained, licensed and endorsed to act as a First Officer, but has insufficient experience to qualify for an Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL).
Jetstar Airways Pilots Agreement, 2008, Page 4
25.1 Base Salary
JUNIOR FO (60% of Level 2 FO)
1 Jan 2008 $52,271
1 Jan 2009 $53,839
1 Jan 2010 $55,454
1 Jan 2011 $57,118
1 Jan 2012 $58,831
Jetstar Airways Pilots Agreement, 2008
* Some airports have separate LCC charge schedule, with reduced services.