Look it depends on what point of view you are looking at this situation from, if you assume that they would have taken low hour pilots on then yes good for the pilots that get in.
I was merely stating that based on the facts that Lion had decided this was the way they wanted to recruit it was a good opportunity for those that could afford to get in. whether its the correct way, the right way etc is not the point I was making, the point I was making was that this was a good opportunity.
I personally prefer to fly the Jet rather than the smaller SEP, the King air was good fun, but I like the airline lifestyle that's just my opinion.
Certainly no going back for me now, it has been a long road!! I mean I don't want to boar people with my story but..
in 2003 I graduated with a CPL, MECIR but no ATPL theory credits
after that I took an Instructor rating and started working as a grade 3 instructor this was terrible, the school had far too many instructors and any full time students that actually flew on a regular basis the CFI or chief pilot would teach, I literally had 2-3 students that wanted to fly on weekends and either they would cancel on me at the last minute, the weather was bad or some other lame excuses, I was at that school 2 years and only made around 300 hours!!
Then in 2005 I went travelling in the hope of something better, my travels took me to Africa, after several months without a job finally by sheer luck one day I was offered a charter job on a C210, looking back this is where things really took off for me, I stayed with this company for almost 3 years and build some very good time and made lots of good friends, then came an opportunity to fly the B58 with a rival company, I took it with both hands and had another year flying MEP! then came the Big break when I went for a King Air C90 job, still in Africa this was a great job to have and I felt as if all the hard work, going without food, camping in tents was all worth it the first time I landed this beautiful airplane. however I was a victim of the race to the bottom when I fellow Aussie came to our base and offered his services free of charge, he had paid for his rating, paid for 50 hours of time in the states and now wanted to work for free to build time! I was let go a few weeks later.
However every cloud has it's silver lining and after literally thousands of applications to airlines I finally got a response! and interview and subsequent job offer on the B737-300, I have flown this type for 3 different airlines ever since varying from the -300 -500 and -400 types.
so in a nut shell that's my life over the last 10 years, but if an opportunity to bypass all the pain and suffering I went through to get to this 737 I would have taken it if I had the money, if I didn't someone else would have, and that is the value of money, I almost gave up a couple of times as I was just in some terrible conditions but I carried on and got my reward.
I'm sure there are some arseholes who have too much money in Lion that just buy there way through life, but I am referring to the passionate ones, the ones who work hard and study, these are the guys that I think have a great opportunity to go on and have a nice career.