In partial response, at least...
Yes, the decision of which modular schools to initially invite to join the Alliance was difficult because of a complete lack of any objective criteria available, all there is is reputation and so the decision was made on that basis. There was an initial group of three or four FTOs, they recommended others and, in general the recommendations were accepted as correct. To be fair, the industry know who the good guys are. Now the Alliance is up and running new members are proposed, or they propose themselves, and the members vote. Moving into the future the members have proposed reciprocal standards visits from senior FIs to provide proper quality feedback from an instructor's point of view and we are working on a tripadvisor style open review platform for students to directly review FTOs. No, I don't think that a CAA approval means an FTO is 'good enough', the approval has little or nothing to do with quality, its all about manuals and processes.
Yes, prospective members have been turned down, some at the voting stage, others have been advised that were they to formally apply it is unlikely they would be accepted. This is sometimes because they have no track record, ie are new schools, sometimes because a straw poll indicates a formal vote would go against them. This is more friendly, I think, than an outright refusal but we have had some angry emails from schools accusing us of operating a clique or a cartel and I'm sure we will get more.
You are right that the only income WA is likely to receive comes from the MCC/JOC. We expect the income from that to support the website and mentoring functions. The company is limited by guarantee, it is non-profit making, there are no shareholders. As far as I understand it it can not be sold.
There is a geographical bias because the founder members were UK based. we are actively looking for members in other areas of Europe.
Yes there is an excessive price difference between integrated and modular, yes it goes to profit and marketing. The integrated course is shorter than the modular route, it could be cheaper, but it isn't. You can buy integrated courses once you get away from the 'big three' for as little as €40,000 in Europe, in the UK Flying Time do one for, I think, £60,000. These courses make a profit. I would be surprised if the 'big three' hadn't worked their cost base down to under £40K with the economies of scale and US training options.
So, yes, I'm expecting a certain number of attacks, clearly not all the industry is going to be pleased with the Wings Alliance. All I would say is look at what we do, look at the price comparisons on the website, check the figures for yourself if you want. Even if you don't do the MCC/JOC at the end and you get your Ryanair/Norwegian job on your own merits you lose nothing, it costs nothing, at at least you get some guidance through the modular minefield.