If you are going to apply then CTC is 10 times better than OAA, there are major tax advantages to the CTC scheme.
There are huge tax advantages of going through Parc also. A huge chunk of the training cost is counted as an expense and therefore reduces your tax hugely (almost to 0).
The finance: In the long-term BA / Virgin/ AL will cost you nothing except living expenses. With easyJet its going to cost you 100k plus living expenses which if you have a loan is going to have to be returned with considerable interest.
True. Don't burden yourself with a loan if there is another option.
Although why anyone would want to be a cruise pilot for XX years is beyond me.
It's no secret that easyJet are short of crew for their Portuguese bases so quite a few of the cadets will likely end up their, remember that this year CTC are not guarantying a British base.
EJ is short of crew in all bases, not just LIS / OPO.
CTC has never based anyone, on flexi, outside of the UK and the only place which has flexicrew (Parc) is Berlin.
The risk could be BCN as this is a new contract and unknown it terms of flexi.
It's an MPL not ATPL. This is fine is you want to spend your entire career at easyJet but if you want to transfer to BA and others then this is going to be a dis-advantage because the ATPL training is widly considered to be a better quality of training.
This makes NO difference at all anymore.
I have a number of friends who left EJ to go to BA with a MPL and <1000 hours. It made no difference to their recruitment or training.
The ONLY thing the airline needs to recruit pilots who still hold an MPL is a sentence in their OM stating that it is an acceptable licence. BA, as an example, have this.
If you wanted to go to someone else (Emirates, Virgin etc) then you'll have an ATPL anyway.
The idea you get an ATPL from BA is misleading. You get a CPL & IR (commonly known as a frozen ATPL) and this can be converted at 1400TT to an ATPL in exactly the same way an MPL can be converted to an ATPL at the same hours.
ATPL training being considered as better quality is also outdated. It's all the same.
Frankly you know nothing when you start flying big Airbi around at 150 hours and it doesn't matter much whether you have spent the time bombing around in a single prop or spending some extra time in a sim. Overall the feedback from regarding the MPL cadets is often better than the traditional cadets.
However, If I was going to someone like Virgin with an MPL then I WOULD be worried. If you are made redundant (look into how they often lay off the latest recruitment - it happens) then you WILL struggle to find another job with an MPL. It's easier when you go out hunting for the job yourself rather than a whole bunch of you floating in the same pool at the same time with a 'special' licence. I also don't know why anyone would want to be a cruise pilot for 2 - 3 years.
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To give you an insight:
Overall EJ is a very good company to work for.
The contracts available long term are fantastic and the flexi / SO / FO contracts are good stepping stones.
THe 0 hour contract notion is fairly pointless also.
I, and my colleagues who I speak to now, made more as a flexi crew than I do currently as a European SFO and I am paid very very nicely currently.
We get rewarded well too with loyalty / performance bonuses (*) plus I've received shares every year due to the company performance.
(*)= subject to contract and where you are.
It's a great place to work and the flying is good fun too. The main thing for me is I come home every night and I can tell you my roster pattern for years to come as I'm on 5453. I'm also in the command process currently and I've been here for about 5 years.
It really depends on what sort of flying you enjoy doing. Personally I find flights over 4 hours a struggle and long haul wouldn't suit me. I also hate spending nights away from my own bed and I really hated nightstops even when they were 2 or 3 times a month in a previous base.
Of course there are ups and downs but there is in any job and in any company. The grass is always greener as they say.
You should always try to get into the industry with as little debt as possible but EJ should be way up on your options in terms of lifestyle, flying and career.
If you want to know more then PM me.
Just be careful with what you read on forums like these are a lot of the information is incorrect or the people posting just have an axe to grind.
Good luck.