I started my flight training at a well known flight school in the Netherlands where a major Dutch airline is normally getting it's pilots from. However, students still have to pay the complete initial (integrated) flight training themselves. Costs are almost 120.000 euro....
Then normally this Dutch airline would hire you if they are in need for pilots. They don't bond, and they pay the typerating and linetraing with a fairly good salary. So no problems if starting for that airline to repay any debts.
However, due to crisis, these cadets are sitting at home working their ass of trying to get a job somewhere else.. But then they find out that the rest of the airlines are asking to pay 2 fly (P2F) with costs in excess of 50.000 euro. That makes their debts going to 170.000 euro. And mostly their salaries are so bad, that they can only afford to pay their interest....
I was somehow lucky to start working for a major German airline. They didn't require me to pay for training or pay to fly, instead they paid everything for me. Their bonding was 55.000 euro for a period of 2 years. And now I enjoy a fairly good salary to repay my debts in a period of 5/7 years...
So if i did quit my job, I am supposed to pay back the remaining of this bond. So if I quit my job after one year, I stil have to pay back 12/24 amount of this initial 55.000 euro that the airline has invested in me.
I must say that my airline really invested 55.000 in me. Their typerating on an Airbus takes almost 100 hours of simtraining and a very large linetraining to get wel trained FO's in their aircraft. Some companies ask their pilots to pay 50.000 euro for type- and linetraining, but mostly make money out of it since they only give a minimal training with minimum hours in sim.... (I think minimum hours for an airbus typeratingprogramme in simulator is about 30 hours or so).
But my own story finding a job and not paying for TR and linetraining is not very common any more in modern world. Most guys that I know did had to pay for their own typerating and linetraining. Some stories here on PPrune.org even suggest that Lionair pilots have to pay 50.000 dollar for their flight training and still getting bonded for a period for 5 years.....
And to make sure you get your story right; its now normally to pay for the initial flight training starting from 0 hours. That training normally takes 2 years whereby the cadet has to pass 14 different subjects in theoretical knowledge, and fly about 200 hours to get their CPL(A), Instrument Rating, and ATPL (A) theory (called "frozen" ATPL(A). This training varies in cost between 50.000 euro (modular) up to 120.000 euro (integrated). Also different cost per country due to differences in tax.
Then after this initial flight training, the airlines take their turn in asking money for typerating and linetraining.
I tell you this because if your article is only about us paying 50.000 euro for typerating and linetraining, then please tell your public that these amounts are being invested after already having invested almost 100.000 euro for the initial triaing.