Pass rate by airline selection process

[robby239]

Hi, I was wondering what pass rate airlines have by their pilot selection processes, both low cost and flag carriers.

[parkfell]

Whatever the historical answer it is now irrelevant, as C-19 will rewrite the answer on what, and at present will remain a blank piece of paper for quite sometime.
Airlines require a specific amount of new recruits at specific times. Invariably supply exceeds demand.

[Mach E Avelli]

I suspect that there is no fixed pass criteria. The goalposts move according to supply and demand. In good years all you need is a pair of Ray Bans and a pulse. Right now a degree in rocket science and several moon landings still wouldn't cut it.

[Bealzebub]

The purpose of the selection procedures are to ensure that very few candidates fail subsequently. In my experience very few do.

The selection process itself is a pyramid. A lot apply and that gets whittled down to a manageable number to be interviewed and or assessed, and that is further whittled down to the successful number that are offered employment. The end number is going to depend on the particular airlines requirement at any given time.

For airlines with cadet schemes, there are similarly going to a specific number of opportunities and the candidates training record will provide much of the background provenance. The selected candidates will also go through an interview process with successful candidates joining the airline on a probationary contract in accordance with the terms of that scheme.

[dr dre]

Talking about cadet pilot places, Aer Lingus had a success rate of less than 0.5% last time it ran it’s program. BA Future Pilot Program was around 2%. Lufthansa Academy less than 10%. It is a very small number of applicants who are actually selected to start training.

In my country, Australia, it looks like airlines running cadet programs have a selection rate of 1-5% of applicants. For the most part the individuals chosen all graduated from their courses, with a maximum of 1 or so trainee not making it through on a course if any, but this isn’t a regular thing.

Civilian cadet courses seem to select applicants whom they are very sure will pass, as opposed to military flight training that seems to start a lot more applicants than they expect to pass.

[Rt Hon Jim Hacker MP]

At the moment, I would imagine the success rate is close to 100% if applying to be a cadet......

[allert]

If you apply for the L3/CAE integrated course, you pass when you hit the “Submit Application” button :}

[Contact Approach]

Are we talking about cadet training schemes that you pay 100k for or the chances of gaining meaningful employment by attending a pilot assessment day with licence in hand? If it's the latter then in todays world as a freshly minted CPL holder your only real prospect is joining the Ryanair brigade when they re-open their TR scheme again. When that will be is anyones guess and theres quite a backlog... those who passed assessment early 2019 are still waiting to start TR.
If we're talking the former then expect to join the back of Ryr queue when your time comes. Just be aware your "training provider" will in no way help you with your Ryr application as you sit down and do it all yourself.
The requirements are as follows:

CPL / ME IR / APS or MCC / AUPRT / Class 1 / Flight School Report

You submit copies via an online portal and if it all checks out then you'll be asked to pay a fee to sit some online aptitude tests. If that goes well then you'll be asked to pay a heftier fee to attend an interview and sim assessment in Dublin. The whole process costs in excess of €500 so as much as it would be nice to say its merit based, theres clearly a financial incentive to at least get you to Dublin.

Throughout the process they DO NOT care if you are integrated / CAE / L3 or Modular etc. You will be interviewed amongst an array of individuals all from different backgrounds. Some will have paid as little as 30K to be sat there in the same room holding the same licence as you that you paid upwards of 100K for because you were incorrectly informed by your training provider.
At no point are you guaranteed anything and at no point is employment certain. Completing the training is the easy part, getting a job is completely different ball game altogether.

Just bare all of this in mind.

[PilotLZ]

There's no magical number. Any fractions are a consequence of two factors: how many vacancies are available and how many applicants are competing for them. In the past couple of years, I have seen a selection process with six candidates shortlisted for an interview for just one vacancy. I have seen one where there were six candidates for two vacancies. And another one where eight candidates were invited for a sim assessment for six vacancies.

What percentage of the total number of applicants who have submitted a CV are invited for interview is also a highly variable number. It can be close to 100% when the sun is shining and there aren't that many people looking for a new job - or a single digit in a situation like what we're seeing now. It also depends on what resources are involved in said interview. If it's a sim ride, you would only want to invite the most promising candidates for it because sim time is expensive. If it's just a written exam and a chat with one or two people from management, this doesn't require as much resources and can potentially allow for calling in more applicants.

[avtur007]

Back about 20 years ago I applied to Aer Lingus cadet scheme. There was 7400 people who applied for 20 positions they told us. I didn't get to the last 20 but did get to the last 40 and they allowed me to fly on a staff ticket in the cockpit of a BAE 146 to get to the interview in Dublin. Those days are gone and I would suggest the ratio of applicants to jobs will be similar or worse today. As a side note: As soon as the pilot hit the throttles, the thing lit up like a Xmas tree but the pilot said, don't worry that's normal for this old thing. I learned after my first type rating it wasn't or shouldn't have been considered normal.

[Jwscud]

I seem to recall Andy O’Shea in the good old days saying the pass rate for the Ryanair assessment was around 50-55% for all candidates, regardless of background. At that time they had contracts for everyone and he was bemoaning the fact that whatever anyone did in terms of training, syllabus changes and so on, the pass rate was remarkably stable.

[stoneangel]

rate : 0% of chance from now :)
goodluck though

[PilotLZ]

You can't fail an assessment if there are none, can you?

On a serious note, in a situation like what we're seeing now there are still openings here and there. I know a couple of guys who have already started flying for a new company after having been retrenched this spring. But neither of them attended any formal assessment with whatever pass rate. It was 100% connections and knowing the right people - and that's how it always is until pilots become needed in large numbers. Seriously, if you have one or two openings and you know loads of great guys, highly competent and experienced, who are out of a job now, wouldn't you offer the vacancy to one of them instead of looking widely for people you don't know? That's the case with most small operations even in the best of times, let alone now.