Budding
I'm very lucky in that I'm 7 years into my career and I work for a big, profitable airline flying jets. I know that many people would give anything to be where I am today, but I do despair when I read that people don't want to do this job primarily for the rewards on offer but just because they love flying. Loving flying is great but as I have found, you still have to pay back the flying loan ( in my case circa £100,000) whilst also trying to somehow start a pension and buy a house, possibly in the south of the UK which is unbelievably expensive. Any rational person cannot afford to overlook these considerations. Airlines will happily let you work for free or almost for free if that's what you want to do - where will that leave the profession for you in 10 years time or for those who follow you? If you genuinely believe it is not a good deal financially then why even consider flybe? As others have said (and I firmly believe it's impossible to get this message across to people who haven't done this job for a while) after your first year or two the romance of flying fades and it becomes a JOB like any other. If you aren't being paid enough to have a good quality of life it will be quite depressing.
Plenty of people are suggesting BA without substance you say. What I say is that people have told you why BA is, in all likelihood, a better option. You seem to be choosing to ignore that for whatever reason. But for the sake of clarity let's recap.
1. An A320 rating is considerably more useful and marketable than a dash 8 rating and thus gives you far more options in terms of your future career, particularly in the event flybe isn't as successful as you hope.
2. You say the turnaround at flybe is going well. I say that the flybe share price nearly halved from the 20th-29th of January this year on the back of a profit warning because the so called turnaround is not going so well. Far from moving to an all Jet fleet (you really need to do your research here) they are desperate to get shot of 9 Embraer jets they don't want or need.
3. You say job security isn't important. I say it's one of the most important things. A passion for flying will not pay your bills if your chosen company goes under.
To me (and I may be wrong) it sounds like for whatever reason you have decided you want to work for flybe and are looking for the community here to affirm that view. For me, it's exactly the wrong view to take. My specific concerns with flybe are being made redundant with a useless type rating and loads of debt (not to mention struggling to make ends meat in the meantime). Also I think you would be very foolish to base your financial planning on the assumption of a command after a specific time frame. Promotions and recruitment in aviation are entirely dependent on demand and the state of the economy which no one can predict accurately.
Good luck whatever you decide but go into it with your eyes open! What's important is a secure job bringing in enough money to fund the repayments and to enjoy a good quality of life. Treat it like you would any other job and you won't go far wrong.
Last edited by Northern Monkey; 5th Mar 2015 at 01:13.