Too young?
 

Hi!

I'm an 18 year old male and I've been training for my ATPL since January. However, I've recently decided to go part time with my training due to financial reasons. I've always been interested in working in the back end of the aircraft as well and have spent a bit of time looking around to see who is recruiting at the moment and if I meet the requirements.

I noticed that the following airlines all take people of 18 years or over:
BMI, BA Citiexpress, MyTravel, Thomson, and Excel Airways

Basically I'd be looking to work in the job for at least 18 months until I get my license to go in the pointy end, and then quite possibly continue until I can get a flight deck job. I reckon it would provide excellent insight and make me a much more rounded pilot who understands the whole operation as opposed to just the flight deck.

I'm 18 and 6 months and I'm basically wondering if that's going to play against me at all in applying to these airlines? I would be bould enough to say that I'm quite ahead of my years and I'm a friendly bloke with quite a bit of customer service experience. How would you guys rate my chances?

Cheers,
M

not really mate if the min age is 18 then if your above that then theres nothing to stop you applying, most need 6 months or a year of customer service experience and thats it, wouldnt recommed saying you want to be a pilot though if you got an interview just keep that to yourself

I think you would benefit from crewing, but

a) dont refer to it as "working down the back"
and
b) as Redfred says dont give the "I want to be a pilot really" routine, it will not impress.

Also, rememvber that with charters you wont get a permenant contract, so youre 18 months will really only be the summer seasons.

Definately don't say you want to fly commercially in interview! Just say you have an interest in aviation and love customer service.

Started as c/c when I was 19, currently 20 and taking a bit of time off to do ATPL's.

Thouroughly recommend it.

Best of luck :ok:

Aero
 

All good advice posted here, see aren't you glad you came to Pprune!

Good luck with the applications, I thinks its a great idea to gain experience in the cabin.
And to get a feel for cabin crew... pun intended :} :} :}

No really great idea, I wish you well.

:ok: :ok: :ok:

Excellent advice guys, thanks so much! I'm still contemplating my next move, but I'm very keen to apply to BMI and BA citiexpress. Does anyone know of any other airlines other than those already mentioned hat accept 18+ as opposed to 19+?

Many thanks once again!

aerojock
Suggest you learn how to spell 'licence' before you write a CV

Depends where you from licence or license.........

When I was a young music student at University the difference between "practice" and "practise" was defined to me by my piano teacher as "It depends whether you are doing it, or thinking of doing it."

Perhaps this applies here. Prioritise the advice, not the grammatical criticism; the former is priceless, the latter really quite cheap.

Squid

try www.flybe.com

:ok:

Trislander, I check the web site but flybe only seem to need no. 1's at the moment, also I think their minimum age is 19.

I sent an application into MyTravel yesterday, really to dip my toe in the water more than anything. I intend to apply to BACX and bmi in the next few days.

Thanks for all the great advice guys :)

Try Excel fab airline, great team to work for. Being 18 won't go against you....i'm 21 and sometimes I feel old!
As long as you work hard theres no reason you wont be kept on and given pernament contract, I started in May - one of the last courses this year - and most of my training course were kept on.

Good luck!

GemStA, an application will be winging it's way over to Excel this evening. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for all the great advice guys, I've got applications into five airlines, all being well at least one of them will come off!

i used to be crew with excel, the reports are right - its a great "family atmosphere" here. I've recently moved over to operations and really enjoying it, excel has had a few people transfer from cabin crew to flight deck this year and their are still cc members waiting for the oppurtunity

very best of luck!

Can you just not wait for 6 months. Get some studying and as much flying done as poss in the next couple of months and before you know it you will be 19. 6 months is really not that long.

And if you are applying for a seasonal position i WOULD mention your ambition to be a pilot. I have my license plus a couple of ratings and i believe thats what got me a job as Cabin Crew for 6 months. They know that you are going to use them as a reference at some point, you love flying, your enthusiastic about flying so your an ideal person.

Good Luck.