Recommendations first from affiliated flight schools. That might fill the numbers required, it might not. If it doesn't then of course everyone else will be in with a shout.
As a former FI of one of the aforementioned FTOs and a short-lived colleague of a former BE's top-brass I can tell you that, despite their best efforts, the operator in question (management pilot's own words, sitting at the recruitment board...) was hardly able to fill its requirements using us and other schools. This was a while ago but not an ice-age away.
Will history repeat itself? I have received that email as well so guess where my money is...
