Here in India , paying for your type rating or the company asking candidates to pay bank guarantees after selection towards training ("type rating costs") has become the norm.Paying for Line training hasnt caught on yet but there's a startup FLYEASY advertising the same for their Embraers.
With the huge glut of unemployed CPL holders( around 5000+) with no viable GA or other options for employment , they have become the cash cow airlines within India and outside are looking at greedily. Lion Air did have an Indian rep to recruit P2F candidates specifically from India .Many of these pilots have now returned with 1000 hrs P2 experience on the B737 to be hired by airlines like ours (Jet Airways) as P2's.
I flew with one of these P2's recently , a cheerful guy and we were paired on a few layover flights together.The stories he had to say about the Lion Air experience was shocking to say the least. Abuse of employees by the middleman contractor from India ( Lion Air paid the contractor x and they got 50% x ) , training and safety standards were basic to say the least and they had to fight their way out of the middleman's clutches to return from the "contract".It's like slavery .
Although I'm totally against P2F , I can see how candidates get attracted to these outfits, this P2 would otherwise be twiddling his thumbs at home had he not taken this drastic route , of course he had the support of his parents as do most Indians
The way forward is for airline pilot's bodies like ALPA worldwide in co-ordination with airline unions take a united stand against P2F .They can make media campaigns on the same to educate the public too on the hazards of P2F for their safety and believe me , today passengers do care with the rash of incidents that have happened, not that every one of those can be attributed to this menace.
let's say no to P2F
