We have Holding Pools for any vacancies that occur in the near future
Yep, they sure do. Not sure how many pools there are now. I applied just over 2 years ago from one of their recommended modular FTO's. We then went through the sim check and got the thumbs up but hey presto recession bit! Still waiting with no real indication of when things will start to move again
Its no great surprise at all that they are now officially stipulating >90% in ATPL writtens to be considered. Even two years ago, they were very selective with regard to applicants from affiliated modular FTO's. Bottom line is they wanted high % passes in the writtens and ideally first time / first series IR and CPL. Of course they may have been exceptions, but this is old news really.
As has been noted, in the dry baron wasteland that is the aviation employment market, they can afford to be choosey.