I’ll start by getting a couple of things straight.
The JAA B737 Type Rating Training Organisation ( TRTO ) approval is held by Bond Aviation Solutions Ltd, not Astraeus.
Bond and Astraeus are actually separate companies – albeit that there is a lot of symbiosis / joint cooperation between them, certainly w.r.t. sharing of resources, e.g. trainers, buildings, aircraft, etc.
Just to help make the distinction:
The Managing Director of Bond is Mario Fulgoni; he was previously a Captain with Airtours, moving to GoFly where he was Chief Training Captain, and then to BWA where he was Director of Training on BWA’s own B737 TRTO. Aside from being a nice guy ( and a personal friend ), he is a very experienced and good trainer as indeed are all of those in his large team.
The managing director of Astraeus is Hugh Parry, and its Operations Director is John Mahon ( previously chief pilot at Go Fly, and BWA’s Ops Director – he is also an active PPRuNer, aka. hamrah ).
Moving on, if somebody wishes to procure a B737 rating they’re actually applying to Bond Aviation for it.
Their application will initially be dealt with / vetted by Sue Masson ( who ostensibly works for Mario ).
Prior to starting the course Sue arranges for the candidate to attend a pre-course interview, during which the goals and abilities of the candidate are assessed so that their suitability for undertaking the type-rating can be determined.
Nb. This pre-selection interview was introduced because, prior to it, some candidates have struggled with the course ( whilst others have taken it in their stride ) and the last thing that Bond want is for people to not be able to make the grade and thereby waste a lot of time, and money – i.e. they only want people who can pass the course and they don’t want failures, as it’s not good for the candidate, or for Bonds good name.
Bond will try hard to ensure that candidates are paired together for the duration of the course and that, ideally, people with low experience are paired with those with more – albeit not so much an issue with the ground school but it does becomes more relevant during the fixed base, and full-flight simulator components.
Whilst all the candidates should be able to pass the course ( courtesy of having been vetted beforehand ) it becomes pretty obvious, as they progress through it, just who are ( if you’ll excuse the pun ) ‘the high-flyers’ and who are not.
W.r.t. airline employment, unless there is fleet expansion and / or movement in the pilot market the need for pilots will be stagnant – wherein how well one might have done is then of little of no consequence, i.e. if there just are no jobs.
E.g. Astraeus recently introduced a sixth B737-300 to its fleet, and so required pilot to fly it – and of course every company, in any business, wants to recruit the best that it can get
Accordingly Astraeus would have liaised with Bond and asked them for details of pilots who had ‘done well’ on the B737 type-rating course, and some of them have since been given jobs ( mostly as FO’s - although there has been one direct entry Captain, a very capable chap, with a lot of experience on other types and training skills too ).
Aside from ability and dedication, there’s a huge amount of luck involved in getting employed as an airline pilot and thus some would have got the timing just perfect, i.e. finished the course, plus did well during it, and have subsequently walked straight off the course and into a job - be it with Astraeus or other airlines.
Others have finished the course, similarly done well, but the timing was off, i.e. the airlines are not recruiting, and so they have been on the market – from which some have since obtained employment ( be it Astraeus or other airlines ) and some are still looking.
Aside - I think I’ll ask Mario to put a post up here himself to address some of the questions that have been raised.
Rgds,
Tony
IT/Systems Manager & B737 Pilot - Astraeus Ltd.