"I'm not sure what your point is. easyJet are expecting to post profits of £240m this year."
My point, if any, is that on paper BA are the only 'sure thing' based on financial results at the moment, BUT you would have to have a very short memory not to recall the last decade. 'Expecting' is also an intersting word - a lot is going on in Europe at the moment. I hope they do reach their targets. It would be good for all the industry.
Ok, so there are no such things as 'sure things' but in terms of financial backing Monarch's pedigree seems equal to easyjet, yet no one's questioning easyjet's commitments to their MPL cadets. I'm not suggesting that it should be doubted either.
You would need a crystal ball to predict whether the market will pick-up, or at least continue the need for MPL cadets. However an opportunity to bypass the cadet pool, or not to put all of one's eggs in the flexicrew basket is very tempting. It doesn't increase the FTO's training capacity in fact it ties up more expensive sim time. The MPL is more expensive.
I can't see any decent FTO ditching MPL students in the event of the mentoring airline going under. However I would expect the FTO to pass the cost of any additional training back on to the student in order to return to the fATPL scheme (but that's just my hunch).