The outsourcing of flight training by all airlines represents the major structural remodelling of pilot cost model.
In the current model, of which CTC are a key part, airlines make near zero investment in pilots.
Airlines do not spend anything up to the point that a CTC cadet sits in a flightdeck.
Prior to this point, almost every single cost is borne totally by the cadet, and all the risks attached to that cost are also borne by the cadet.
Under the current CTC TR arrangement, the TR funding is the only time "price" is shared between the cadet and CTC.
The cadet fronts minimum 8.2K towards the price of the type rating. In terms of actual cost, this is close to half the actual cost. The price is whatever the provider sets, and in this regard CTC is extremely expensive compared to what else is available in the open market. Cadets do not have access to the open market if they wish to enter via the Flexicrew route because that route is stitched up. CTC commence TR training with this payment in hand and with the remainder of the cost borne by them in the form of a deferred income once the pilot goes to the line with eJ. Then, CTC takes all the money it is paid by eJ for the cadets line hours and keeps it. In actual fact, eJ pays CTC for every single line hour from zero that the cadet does. CTC keeps all the money, and only releases a fixed 1200 per month to the cadet for 8 months. In my case, CTC kept nearly 30k out of my pocket. In addition, they are also paid fees by eJ as payment for their part as an agency. They keep this as well. This means their income in the first 8 months, in my case was well in excess of 30k. Therefore, over 8 months they made my 8.2K + over 30K. I received 9600.
After the first 8 months of line training, provided the cadet is above 500 hours line flying, they get paid 43 per block hour. Essentially you're not paid anything until you push back and stop getting paid when you get back on blocks. You are not paid anything for your briefing hour before off blocks, the 30 minutes of duty after on-blocks, no pay for turnarounds, and any time on the ground i.e. any form of delay is unpaid.
An eJ pilot's actual duty hours are just over double their flying hours. So in a 900 hour year, you are doing about 1800 duty hours. Therefore, in actual fact you are not being paid 43 an hour. You are really being paid 21.50/hour of time spent at work.
I know the rates easyJet pays to CTC and I know the rates CTC pay to its cadets. There's a big difference. Once you are on the line, contact with CTC is minimal. All they are then doing is running a payroll, and boy are they milking you for it.
Vague clauses covering certain situations to do with roster changes, standbys and a few other scenarios are exploited by the airline to minimise what it needs to pay, and CTC do next to nothing to stand up for the cadets on this matter.
The only "investment" eJ are making to a cadet pilot on the line is the cost of having Training Captains in the LHS during your first 34 - 48 line sectors. This is not really a particular investment. It is actually just turning over the Training Captain asset base that the airline already maintains. It is not actually spending any more money on just the cadet. Cadets are conducting their line training on revenue generating flights. The training is done in a profit-generating environment.
So, you see, the notion of "investment", or expenditure, by the airline is practically zero. This is by deliberate design. The training system you enter with CTC has been designed by them and the airlines specifically to:
Manage risk away from the airline and the training organisation, and place it solely on the trainee.
Manage cost out of the airline's books, and place it solely on the trainee.
Minimise any contractual commitments the airline has by ensuring that cadets are never actually airline employees. This way the airline circumvents tax, National Insurance, employment law and any costs of having a permanent employee.
Reduce to zero the level of commitment the airline has to any individual cadet pilot. The airline is simply buying a block hour. The individual is made practically irrelevant in this exercise.
As a pilot, it is your responsibility to report fit for duty. Sickness or fatigue should prevent you from flying. Now, because of these contracts and training model, pilots face the conflict between doing the right thing i.e. reporting sick or fatigued, and turning up to work unfit because they need the money that badly. This is happening in this airline. This is happening because there is a rotten culture and system that is simply, unfairly and irresponsibly loading too much risk and too much cost on to the shoulders of the individual. The Human Factors book will need some updating very soon.
Also, this airline is pressurising pilots to tow the line by essentially bullying pilots. People are afraid of reporting fatigued because to do so requires the completion of a fatigue report. They are afraid that if they fill in these reports, it will count against them if and when they get a chance to apply for a permanent contract. I know of at least three instances of people being contacted and told "if you don't do what we are telling you: it will count against you when applying for a permanent job; will have your permanent job offer rescinded.". There are more examples than this, but these I know of directly. Three such cases are three too many in a safety critical organisation. CTC is also complicit in this as more than once they have passed these messages along to the cadets.
So, if you bear all of the above in mind, you will see why I fundamentally disagree with the statement by a wannabe trainee that "Flexicrew was ideal" for cadets. It's not. Flexicrew, and the training model before it is not ideal for anyone other than the airline and the FTO. Its fundamental principle of outsourced, profit-generating training with near zero investment from the airline and near zero protections for the cadets is ethically corrupt, is designed and used in ways that undermine safety in this industry, and is totally exploitative. Both the airline and CTC, when challenged, both rely on the statement that "The cadet knew what they were signing up to and they signed the contract.". Even this is a misrepresentation because you can never know how everything in the contract is actually going to work or be used in practice until it's too late. That excuse is the kind used by people who lack the ability to defend their system by any other means.
Now, to understand what might change the status quo...
BALPA, the pilots' union, has known in detail about the CTC arrangement for in excess of two years. In that time, they have taken a total of zero action. Cadets are in BALPA, and do take issues to BALPA, but because the union is not recognised by CTC and currently has no plans to seek recognition, both eJ and CTC are totally able to ignore BALPA.
The Flexicrew cadets are either too apathetic or afraid of working together and standing up for themselves directly to CTC for better terms and conditions.
CTC have not issued any pay rises to cadets for three years. In fact they and the airline cut the total pay a cadet received in the first 8 months, as this used to be 1000 a month plus sector pay.Now it's just 1200 a month. that's around a 4-500 difference.
Also, bear in mind that the entire time you are on a Flexicrew contract, you are on a random roster. You don't know what you are doing next month until the 17th of the month before. This makes planning anything outside of that window totally impossible. BALPA currently states that it doesn't think any pilot should be on this type of roster for more than 3 months. Flexicrew will have you on this for 3 years. With rumoured changes to the contract, there's a possibility people could find themselves on random roster for 5 years, and after that it's unknown what would be offered by the company.
Right now, in the last 18 months, the choices have been CTC Flexicrew then trying for an eJ permanent continental contract. A lot of people have not applied for these contracts because they don't want to leave the UK and they continue to hold out hope that the company will start offering UK contracts which is unlikely IMO. 3 people created their own opportunities at Monarch. When they resigned from eJ, CTC tried to sting them for the contracted bond, despite the fact that in reality, CTC had already made back more than its money for the TR from the money it kept from the cadets. Those cadets took legal advice and the bond amount was reduced with legal negotiation. Once they opened a pathway to Monarch, CTC managed to get about 8 more cadets in to Monarch on the traditional payment arrangement i.e. the airline covered the TR and the cadets went on reduced salary. Just recently, about 20 hold pool cadets have been assessed by Qatar for a decent deal in Abu Dhabi, bonded for three years. TR covered, money tax free. I've just covered a total of 31 cadets. The rest are Flexislaves. That's pushing 250+ CTC cadets.
The likelihood is that you are training for this scheme, with all the stuff I mention.
I know how this system works. I know what problems it is creating. I know what the union's position is on this, and there basically isn't one. There's no one coming to save the day here. This is the employment landscape.
I am not a newbie who wants to enter the training system, trying to find ways to convince myself that I am going to do it. It makes little practical difference to me whether you enter this system now or not, because I am not directly dependent on what is happening below me in the food chain.
If you enter this system, you will come out the other end desperate for anything anyone throws at you. If that happens to be a big **** sandwich, you will have to take a bite. And you'll have to keep eating it, until you can afford not to.
If you actually sit down and do the sums of income and expenditure, even on a BA FO starting salary or maximum 900 hours a year flexicrew pay, or an eJ continental FO contract, the debt repayments take a really, really big swedge, making your actual take home nowhere near as much at the headline salary rates would have you think. Meanwhile, the airline and the FTO rakes it in and will, if able, never ever give you a payrise. That's the game you are entering.