CabAir and FlyBE Sponsorship-How are students doing now?
 

Hi,

I was just wondering how the current climate is affecting the students who gained the part sponsorship for FlyBE from Cabair.

I believe the schemes were running last Autumn (2008) and the previous years before.

The 4 or so people who were chosen (ab-initio), to train with Cabair and then join FlyBE, have they acheived this goal, or are these students in a holding pool.

I hope everything is great for these students/ First Officers, however I am curious on FlyBE's position regarding this.

Thanks

I too would be interested to hear how it turned out? Have they got any other sponsored students at other colleges aswell? Seam to remember 6 went to OAA

Flybe are doing MPL schemes with OAA and FTE - don't know if they will do anything with Cabair.

FF

I have a friend at ccat and he has heard that the 6 fully sponsored students have been let go. I hope he's wrong :eek:

All rubbish. 4 at OAA, 4 at Cabair. All are going into the holding pool as and when they finish. I have a friend on the same course at OAA. Think there are mentored students at fte too.

The students from the 2006 intake, starting 2007 and finishing early last year were all taken on as normal upon course completion.
I heard the 2007 intake starting 2008 and finishing up recently have been placed in the hold pool. Not sure as to their status in the pool though i.e whether they get priority etc.

I doubt whether cabair have the infrasturcture to carryout an MPL even if they had the linkup to carryout such a scheme. I understood they were still running the usual handful of annual part-sponsorsips that cumulonimbussurfer mentions as been a cancelled course for 2009.

I was one of the potential cadets who applied in 2007 for the Jan 2008 Cabair/Flybe course.

This is always something interesting to understand and I would like your thoughts on the following:

1. Would the guys who did succeed in this course (and expected to finish end of 2009) be fast-tracked ahead of non-"sponsored" fATPL guys in the pool?

2. If Flybe do not recruit for lets say another 12 months, would the FTE/Flybe MPL cadets be placed ahead of the 2008 "sponsored" cadets and in turn non-"sponsored" fATPL would be further back in the queue?

3. Is it safe to say that Flybe is another airline (recession or non recession period) that can be crossed off the list as an airline to apply to as an integrated/modular fATPL 250hr cadet due to their constant sponsorship schemes? ...Leaving just Ryanair?

To answer your third question - absolutely not. The various sponsored and mentored schemes are just one of several routes into Flybe. When the job market was active we needed around 10 new FOs per month, which came from a mixture of cadets, 250hr fATPLs and more experienced pilots (1000hr ex instructors or TP guys). That gave the company a broad mix of backgrounds, ages and experience levels, which is entirely sensible.

Expect a similar balance once the job market picks up again.

Cheers G-SXTY

That is encouraging.

This for many (at least in the pool(s?)) is a burning question. Financial demands would say that as a "non sponsored" fATPL not from one of the approved MAPS/MPL schools, you are in for a very long wait, regardless of when you actually entered the pool.

Anybody in the know care to substantiate this?

i know one of the chaps involved in this scheme and yes they have been offered cabin crew positions. happy for them all as although its not really what they were after it does show flybe are committed to them and intend to get them in the RHS when things improve a bit.

Spend best part of £80,000 to become cabin crew for flybe and earn about £12000 pa, sounds like a great deal.

Alternatively you could spank 80 grand on an integrated course, strut out into a barren job market, scratch your head and wonder why no-one cares about your well worded recommendation and 99% exam average... Obviously a job in the back isn't quite as desirable as one in the front but at least Flybe have been proactive and come up with a solution to the current situation. The cadets have been told that they will be able to start their Dash ratings as soon as places become available and if they wish to decline the work they are welcome to find something else to tide them over... could be worse... much worse!

How does the typical integrated grad make the repayments on the £60k of they are lumbered with on the salary of junior cabin crew??? Wow... what a great deal.... :yuk::oh:

Working as Cabin Crew...

This idea has been used previously by British Airways in the past and it seemed to work very well. Admittedly those guys were cadets with nothing to pay and the Flybe guys will need to begin paying there loans. Monthly cash in the bank and working within the airline is better than sitting at home, my feeling would be those guys and girls have made a wise decision. The old addage out of sight out of mind comes to mind.

As for the hold pool it is peppered with high to very low hours pilots. Obviously as those in the pool are not yet employed there is no seniority which in essence means Flybe like all airlines can pick and choose who they Rate first. My guess would be courses made up of a mixture of experienced and low hour pilots as the dynamics tend to work better during the training. As for sponsored and MPL cadets I believe the MPL guys need to complete the rating to complete the MPL unfortunately this may mean they do leapfrog the pool.

Still don't dispare I fully believe Flybe will start training new joiners before the MPL guys get their chance. I believe the final E145 pilots will be rated on the Q400 by the end of July... There are still Q400 deliveries in the pipeline and they need to be crewed.

Keep up the swimming guys and gals you are nearly there.

Roller

IMHO not bad for flybe to say to the recent grads we have no FO positions for you at the minute and while this is the case would you like a job down the back?? A lot better than being told sorry chap off you go and good luck!!

These guys have already been assessed and watched by flybe all the way and as soon as a seat becomes available they will be in. Much better momentarily taking cabin crew job than looking at the barren market the rest of us are!!

If they have told a recent bunch of grads they don't need rolling of the "sponsored" production line it does beg the question why this MPL course is being run at all..... beware all those paying up for it.:uhoh:

If they haven't got these grads placed I wonder why they have got this new scheme at OAA?

They must be predicting a large expansion somewhere surely?

Thomson selected some students just over 2 years ago on the same kind of deal : "you pay aver 100 000 euros at FTE and if we can afford it we'll hire you as a pilot"....
Guess what....... Global down turn.......... All screwed!!! Not even a cabin crew offer, simply nothing.
We always criticise bloddy O'leary and Ryanair but what flybe, Thomson, easyJet (with CTC cadets) just did is purely outrageous.
I'm afraid that's the way the industry is going,

Think 1 second of the deal all these OAA, FTE or CTC offer : Pay more than you've ever made in your entire life for :mad: all at the end........................... How many of these "sponsored" guys would have been into such debts if he had known the outcome?? We can gamble with few bucs in a pub, not with someone's life or house.

The airlines hold billions and billions of cash flow and the only offer they do is a cabin crew position !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am litteraly appalled

Once again, don't borrow money guys, work, save you'll avoid a lot of trouble

My friend is on one of these schemes and told me the following:

Flybe are starting 18 MPL students this summer (12 in Oxford, 6 in FTE) as well as more MAPS students at FTE later this year and frankly it is ridiculous. The reason they are still going ahead with these schemes (even though there are 20+ swimmers plus more part sponsored and MAPS students graduating every couple of months) is to save face and promote a strong image in the current climate and I also heard that it is to keep the relationship with FTE and oxford sweet as they both want to be the first schools to train MPL. There is also a rumour out that it is to help secure government grants/funding for their shiny new training acadamy in Exeter.

Flybe have also sent this to the Cabair and MAPS graduates as part of a currency package email:

"The JOC Training Agreement (MAPS students) will remain in place for a period of 1 year from the date of finishing training. If no First Officer position can be offered in this timescale Flybe will write off the Training Agreement but the individual would then lose any advantage of being a MAPS student in priority of job offer.
The Part Sponsored (PSP) Training Agreement terms will remain in place for a period of 36 months from the date of finishing training. If no First Officer position can be offered in this timescale Flybe will write off the Training Agreement but the individual would then lose any advantage of being a PSP student in priority of job offer
Partial Sponsored students from any school, in order of seniority of completion of JOC, will be given priority in the pool before MAPS students"


MAPS guys affected finished training as farback as last year so I think they are losing all job priority in 5 or 6 months. They guys really are being screwed after being promised they would be looked after.