A large amount of pilots set to retire?

[Dozza2k]

Can anyone shed light on the rumours that BA may be considering starting their Sponsored Cadet Scheme again, due to retirements of many pilots expected? If anyone does have any info, please give soon as i am in the process of turnin my back on this dream and am enquiring about flying schools in Australia (self funded = broke wannabe!!)

[scroggs]

They may be considering it, but they have made no announcements so far. They have a slightly increased retirement rate forecast for 2005-2008 (I think), but it's not large enough to base any decisions on that may affect the rest of your life!

My own feeling is that most airlines will be holding off on any expansion or recruiting plans until the fall-out from the upcoming Gulf conflict has settled, and the future has become a little clearer. As last week's stockmarket falls show, even the hard-headed business world is prey to panic, fads and shot-termism. By that I mean that, right now, you won't get any sense out of anyone close to the coalface who you could normally ask about future plans!

If you can hold off for another year or more (which is my own guess as to when they might start again - and may well be wrong!), and BA is that important to you (why?) then do so. Otherwise, I suggest you make other arrangements.

Scroggs
Virgin/Wannabes Moderator
[email protected]

[Freak]

BA is important because it doesn't cost anything and all the others do.

[APU FIRE]

on the contrary Mr. freak,

British Airways training isn't free at all. It's probably one of the most restrictive trainings about. Firstly, you DO have to pay them back... An awful lot of your training expenses come out of your first few years of earnings. Secondly, if you're with BA you have to stay with BA for a pre-determined period and there's never any guarrentee of a job at the end of it. I knew of BA cadets with frozen ATPLs working in safeway, who are not able to go out looking for other airliner jobs.

Chosing an independent form of training opens up your options greatly. If you think that you have the correct attributes required to become a BA cadet then honestly you should have no problems doing it independently and other organisations should 'snap' you up. And if the BA training is SO important to you, you can always approach them during your training at any later stage and switch over. There are MANY organisations that train along side BA cadets and have an identical program from start to MCC JOC.

The BA training scheme isn't the ONE-and-ONLY. Look around, you'd be surprised.

[Freak]

Cheers APU FIRE - that was exactly the sort of reply I was hoping to invoke.

I've applied to BA a few times in the past and actually got dropped at the final stage once (poor interview), but I've always been wary of applying to part-sponsorhip schemes because I hate borrowing money.

Having recently got my PPL under my own finance, my opinions have changed somewhat and think that a part-sponsorhip needn't leave me with less money over, say, a five year period than a full-sponsorhip would. Like you say, perhaps even more.

So I'm waiting for my Buzz/Cabair application form like everyone else at the moment! Instructing for a period before airline flying - I think - would be much more rewarding.

But full-self-finance is still not an option in my mind at the minute!

[Aviation Trainer too]

BA just had their famous peak last year with about 220 retirements. Expect to see about 150 to 170 pa over the next few years.

[exfi]

the ba one (which isnt an option anymore) is not the only 100% sponsorship. the altantic fugglie scheme doesnt require money although you have to work for them for free while in training - i dont know the url but there was a thread about it recently. the ctc mcalpine cadet scheme is 100% sponsorship (ej and jmc) go here www.ctcmcalpine.com and there are a couple of enourmous threads about it running at the moment

personnaly i think the cabair/buzz/flybe schemes are a bit rich - you have to pay a lot yourself you have to work for cabair for 2 years earning not much then you get a poorly paid job at the end of it. compared to self funding then instructing it is ok as it costs less and there is a job but it doesnt stack up against other sponsorship schemes

scroggs the url thingmy has stopped working since the new smiles came in it interprets the [url]http: //etc[url/] as a [url]http://etc[url/] good eh:confused: