Wowzers,
First off thank you all for taking the time to respond and I really do appreciate all your information/advice.
Northern Monkey.
To be clear I think you're talking about 2 different things. There is doing it primarily for the rewards and ensuring it pays the bills. I'm fairly lucky that I already own a house and am sharing a house (owned) with my gf in London. I've also got some savings together over the last 8 years of a pretty well paid job along with 8 years of what is probably one of the best company pensions in the UK. In short, i'm in a good spot financially and for me the main driver is flying and enjoying the flying. If I just want good money I'd go work in the city and continue what i'm doing now and i'd be earning atleast double what most airlines will pay me (roughly 3x Flybe). However I do have to ensure I can support myself.
I think you're missing my point here. Just to tell you exactly where i'm coming from, I think the answer is BA and i'm fairly sure i'm right BUT i'm playing devils advocate for myself. I'm a very logical person and want to ensure I evaluate all the opportunities that are open to me.
1. Agreed that the A320 rating is far more useful but that's on the assumption that I'd want to leave the Dash 8 behind. Would I? I'm not sure.
2. Yes agreed they are not doing as well as they hoped (hence the profit warning) but they are still in profit. If you look back it wasn't me that said they were moving to an all jet fleet, that was someone else. As I stated earlier i'm aware that they have cancelled a load of Embraers and upped their loan of a few more Dash 8s. Glad to hear you confirm this also.
3. Again, job security it important but it's not why i'm doing this. I have a good background/qualifications and years of experience in Project Management to fall back on. If I wanted Job Security i'd stick to what I know and get in to a job in the city. I'm not coming to the airline industry for job security, it is a bonus.
I take your point that they are nowhere near as solid a company as Flybe. The MPL is also an issue although i'd hope that CTC would find me alternate work if things went wrong but I know I can't rely on that.
Surely I'd be foolish not to consider where I'm going to be in 5yrs time. As I understand it, it's well known that you will make Capt with some of the carriers (Easy/RyanAir) in less than 5yrs.
What I'm getting here is that the risks are big. An MPL with a company that's barely profitable and a rating that's not very transferable. So if things go wrong i'll be in a spot of bother and arguably these risks are too big and I take that point... Let's however say (again in an attempt to explore all opportunities) that all goes well, Flybe continues to improve and I enjoy the Dash8 and perform well. Do you think i'd progress well within Flybe? Would I enjoy it? are there other factors i'm not considering?
Thanks again for all your help but to be clear this job HAS TO bring me more than good pay and job security otherwise I might as well stick with my current employment and earn about twice as much in a very secure company.
Luke Skytoddler,
Will I be able to pick and choose later? I don't agree with just taking any job, as I pointed out above i've also got some other good and interesting employment opportunities. I feel like I have to be a little bit picky.
Rex Banner,
Great to hear from an Ex Flybe pilot.
Interesting view on Flybe, would you not agree they are now heading in the right direction with the new CEO? What would be a good rough guide to command then at Flybe?
The Dash rating is useless, believe me - If you've been through it all I imagine you know far better than anyone else. So am I wrong in thinking they will simply take each hour on the Dash as .5 or .7 of an hour equivalent to a jet and i'll simply have to pay for a new type rating?
Anyone signing up for a sponsored programme right now would be taking a monumental gamble - Really? I thought a sponsored program was safer than an integrated ATPL? What about with EasyJet or even BA? If you could PICK a route and money wasn't an issue what would you do? Integrated ATPL? BA ATPL? Another MPL?
Flybe is/was a lovely company (before the 2013 redundancy nastiness) and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there but career wise it's a complete and utter dead end - When you say dead end, what if you enjoy flying the Dash and progress on to being a Captain? Is that not a 'happy end'?
Again, I take all your points and agree with most, if not all, of them but i'd be silly not to conduct due diligence and examine all my options. People that just say 'obviously BA' are the better option aren't really adding any weight. Any random bloke on the street could guess at that so what i'm looking for are substantial facts to support your views and I feel like i'm getting there slowly.
Thank you again for all your help soo far. Feel free to chip in and add some more.