Let me say from the outset that I am not in the training section but am an ordinary line pilot. I have no idea what they are after this time in terms of experience. All I can say is that last time around there was a mix of new joiners. Some were A320 rated but most not. The majority were integrated (Oxford and a few Jerez) but also a fair share of modular to. The rated people had a varied spread of hours from the bare minimum through to some with command time on big buses. There were also a bunch of Aer Arran, Cityjet, FR and corporate jet. Again some of them had command and/or instructor time and many thousands of hours. Others were just in the door at those outfits and wanted to get out.
Whilst many looking in from the outside would think that everyone at AL is off a cadet scheme this is not the case. Over the years there have been lots of direct entrys that have a varied background from thousands of hours on light singles, military through to TP and other jet operators.
Logic would dictate that there would be a mix of people hired purely from the simple standpoint that we only have 1 A320 sim and the training department wouldn't be able to cope with running full conversion courses, ZFTT, base training etc. It is already stretched with pre command courses and A330 conversions nevermind the usual ongoing training. Bet hey what would I know I am only applying logic. And unfortunately if your lucky to get in then logic has no bearing on how anything in Aer Lingus works
