NABANOBA:
Tut Tut, silly old me.
"ONLY" £92,000 for a non-job. With, or without type rating is still a ridiculous sum of money.
The world has gone mad - and I think AdM has too. I never thought I'd read him advocating wholesale the CTC system, even if it is under the guise of "it is the only way now........"
But that is because Alexander De Meerkat is absolutely right. Like it or not, the industry has been evolving this way for quite some time now. The recession has served to mask the reality, and provided a rock for the disbelievers to hide behind.
This route (and a couple of similar ones) has increasingly been seen as the "cadet" route into an airline pilot apprenticeship by many of the major players. In this case the rules of the game were, broadly speaking: You pay a £69,000 "bond" and another £10,000 for a foundation course. You budget for living costs (food and transport) for 16 months (pick your own figure I would average around £10,000) That commits around the £90,000 mark. On successful completion of the course, the cadet was offered a placement with a partner airline for 6 months, during which time around £8000 of the "bond was returned as a subsistance allowance, which the cadet used in conjunction with normal flight allowances to cover this training period. At the conclusion of the 6 months, the cadet would be well on their way to having 500 hours under their belt, and subject to the airlines requirements might reasonably expect to be offered an employment contract on cadet terms for a year or two, then dovetailing into a normal contract thereafter. The remaining bond was transferred to the partner airline who usually repaid it in monthly sums for the next 5 years. The type rating was paid by the placement (partner) airline.
This route provided a solid base into an airline apprenticeship, and for the succesfull applicants worked well. This same scheme is in many respects the same format as that recently adopted By British airways for their FPP cadet programme. It is also the format still used (in conjunction with CTC) by a couple of other companies still recruiting cadets.
The reality of the marketplace over the last 5 years or so, has meant that EZY has (with minor exceptions) been pretty much the only game in town. As a customer in a
de facto monopoly position, it has been able to negotiate its own terms. Obviously these are favourable to the airline and significantly less favourable to the prospective cadet in financial terms. The type rating is now an added expense, and the placement terms are significantly weaker. However as a strong customer dictating terms to an ever weakening market, what were the options?
This winter has seen some growth in placement opportunities for some of these cadets, and there has been a limited ressurgence in the more classic terms for some graduates. I am aware of twenty graduates who are having their type ratings paid for by the placement airline. For these graduates the £90K figure I mentioned earlier is
ballpark correct.
Expansion in cadet (entry level) programmes is increasingly going to follow this model. The schools themselves have spent the last few years investing in the infrastructure, and the airlines are going to tailor their cadet programmes around that infrastructure.
ADM says that he would advise his son to follow this route as the best "most certain" route into flying an airbus. Accepting that there is nothing "certain" about it, I would definetaly have to agree. That is the advice I would give to my son or daughter as well.