Bear in mind that bmi is a part-sponsorship where the successful applicant has to provide £15,000 towards the training. I think this sum may have put more people off than the £50 application fee. Still, I think 6000 applicants is unlikely to happen.
As for Flying Start, I rang OATS at the time and they seemed to think it was on the level, in fact they were very insulted that I suspected it was a scam. Therefore just 'cos a company can fool a flight training establishment it doesn't mean they aren't dodgy,
TB
PS. As far as Malgus making money out of it, will it simply be from the application fees or are they planning to bind people into some horrible contract with crappy pay?