angelorange - I have not the slightest doubt you are a highly professional aviator with many years of valid experience in easyJet. I do not believe, however, your advice is correct to Hezza. We all lament the passing of the numerous previous ways into commercial jet aviation such as HM Forces, turboprops, night freight, single-pilot piston-twin taxi flying, instructing etc. The fact is, nonetheless, that those routes are generally gone. Like it or not, CTC is the main way into easyJet. The advice you are giving to Hezza, however well-intended, is fundamentally incorrect. All very interesting as it is to know how airlines did it in the past - it is just that, the past. None of these routes exist now and to tell someone to try them is to send them on a certain route to professional failure. As you well know, there are literally hundreds of ex-CTC cadets who are now at BA flying shiny long-haul jets or still at easyJet as flexicrew First Officers, Senior First Officers, Captains and Training Captains. The route provided into aviation by CTC has been incredibly successful in terms of getting the cadets from being 200-hour newbies to senior commercial pilots with a variety of companies. Whether it was the best route is debatable, but the fact remains that it is now one of the few routes in at all. In these discussions, I always think what I would advise my son - I would have to tell him to go to CTC if he wanted the most certain route into flying an Airbus. I am only too aware of the limitations of the CTC system, but it is, alas, increasingly the only game in town.