Can someone explain the rationale as to why a commercial enterprise (airline) shouldn't be allowed to identify a market (cadetships) and turn it into a profit centre, which provides greater shareholder return, and greater business certainty by guaranteeing a stream of appropriately trained pilots for a known distance into the future.
Surely the market will sort out if the risk/reward ratio is acceptable.
I don't have an opinion on cadets other than i have flown with plenty and found them to be good in normal ops and initially out of their depth in non normal ops.......much like every other pilot new to a big jet. Much like i was when i first started flying multi-crew aircraft.
I now have a lot of experience and i can assure you that i do not come to work with the expectation that i will need to rely on the decision making skills of an inexperienced pilot (cadet or otherwise) to provide a good outcome. There is no question i value their input, but at the end of the day, the reason i am there is because i have the experience. Isn't that how it is meant to work. I pass on my experience to the new guy (cadet or otherwise) and he or she eventually has the knowledge and experience to take my spot and continue the cycle.
On the contrary i do support the company's need to do what is best for their business, as long as it complies with labour laws and industry regs.
So i believe there is nothing wrong with cadet schemes, but there may be a problem with the way a couple of our companies seem to be trying to circumvent the laws of the land.
Last edited by virginexcess; 20th Mar 2011 at 00:00.