I guess that wasn't meant to be released just yet! Although, yes, I would also be very interested to know what it said...! BVB, can you fill us in on what we missed?:ok:

The clue is in the URL....

It was about CTC getting the contract to train 50 mpl students to go straight onto Virgin widebodies.

I'm guessing it was supposed to be announced this Saturday at Heathrow but Flightglobal got ahead of themselves. My post in the other Virgin thread was deleted.

Yep been following the trail of emerging info about this for a few weeks but was hoping for a few more details... Oh well, guess it's going to have to be a wait until Virgin's talk on Saturday morning! Looking forward to hearing what they have to offer.

The article basically said 50 cadets, CTC MPL, training in UK/Arizona. It also said it would open today but nothing so far on CTC site.

From reading Terms and Endearment thread on the subject:

"Yep fully fledged base trained in a real aeroplane First Officers. Fully funded by the the company with 9 year bond and slightly reduced pay until pay point 9 to cover costs then non cadet pay as far as I am aware although might be slightly wrong, but in principle correct.

Sounds like a very old school fully sponsored scheme which should be applauded in my opinion.

The new cadets will be made to feel very welcome because that is what we do internally with any new joiner regardless of background.

The scheme is very small in the big scheme of things and there will always be opportunities for experienced pilots. Not dissimilar to BA in that respect.

The bottom line is cadets recruited on ability and not ability to pay. Gets my vote.

All the best"


Sounds good if you ask me :ok:

Opens tomorrow

Virgin Atlantic Future Flyers Programme ? Pilot Training

"Future Flyers" makes it sound like a crèche in a departure lounge.

Still, wonder what i'll be doing at 12.02 tomorrow :8

Opens midnight tonight... exciting stuff!

Does Virgin also hire pilots from outside the UK?

Is there any concrete info to show that it really is fully funded?

Funding-wise, if it is indeed fully funded, I imagine it will depend on how "fully-funded" is defined.

It would be great if it was in the style of the Hamble cadetships back in the 60's and 70's where absolutely everything was paid for, fairly unlikely though.

I imagine that the best possible realistic outcome would be for it to be broadly similar to BA's FPP, where the airline secures the loan but the trainee bears a significant amount of the financial risk involved.

If it were the former, I'd be tempted to throw an application in. If it were the latter I'd get some more experience working in my current industry so if things didn't work out I could probably jump back as a subcontractor.

I imagine all will be revealed in a couple of hours.

It will be fully funded, even if guys fail the training Virgin will take the hit, I believe the cadets will even be on a salary during their training.

This will pave the way for Virgin to start taking Direct entry turbo prop guys.

Good luck to all who apply.

Virgin Atlantic Future Flyer Programme
 

Login | CTC Wings

£109k for a 9 year bond with a company in uncertain times. Can't imagine an MPL practising landing 3 times a month will be terribly good value. Not sure about this one or how other airlines would view it in the worst case scenario. As for CTC, par for the course..

A £109k security bond is required, funded by the applicants, though at least they seem to offer a guarantee to at least a few applicants. Makes it broadly equivalent to the FPP then in my book.

Given there is a 98% pass rate at CTC I'm surprised that for these schemes one can't simply purchase insurance that would cover a course failure, this would make it much more accessible than a security bond. I know there have been cases where airlines get into bother etc. but the recent redeployment of the Monarch MPL folks suggests that certainly for the smaller intakes it is possible to find a position elsewhere if one's sponsor can't take their trainees on. Given the things that have been insured at Lloyd's of London over the years I'd imagine it would be possible. Probably cheaper than losing the interest on £100k plus over a few years as well.

As always, best of luck to those who apply.

EDIT: I now see that they offer a guarantee to few applicants who cannot afford the bond.

They are only offering the guarantee option to a small number of candidates.

BBC article suggests cadets would go to the A330:

Virgin Atlantic trains no-experience pilots in Southampton and Phoenix - BBC News

All cadets start off on the A330.

I tried clicking on the "apply now" button but it does not work. Does anyone else have this problem?

sammyduke - Yep same here, it was working earlier, I did start an application then it gave up on me halfway through and appears the link doesn't work anymore... Hopefully it will be back up and running in the morning though.

So much for it being a fully funded paid up front cadet scheme! A cadet course based on aptitude rather than bank balance? Salary whilst on the cadet course? Pprunes finest ladies and gents :D

CTC Wings' website appears to have crashed with all the heavy traffic. Just goes to show how competitive it will be.