Mr-P, I think the chap you spoke to is probably in the ATP hold pool as the wings hold pool is pretty small at the moment with no more than 50 (but it will be growing over the coming months). I don't know what the ATP pool is like but of those 50 or so that are in the wings hold pool, most would expect to get jobs by the end of the summer (unless there is some other reason for them not to get jobs). Again, how recruitment this year goes is anyone's guess.

For the other hold pool which this chap was likely in, they would only offer people jobs when the wings hold pool had been exhausted entirely. There are however a lot of cadets graduating at the moment and the cadet pool will probably increase in size a bit more before it goes down. People have spoken of the vast numbers of cadets going through the system at the moment, but don't forget that a reasonable proportion of those are pre-tagged with BA, Monarch, Flybe and perhaps others (I am not up to date). This means that they will not be competing with whitetail cadets or indeed ATP.

Edit: Sorry, i didn't see this was the ATP thread and wrote the last towards the wings wannabes. Others, may find it useful so i will leave it here for posterity.

Can anyone suggest/does anyone know if there is such thing as a 'good' time of the year to be in the pool?

My thinking being that, most operators are busiest in the summer months so would logically want their crewing sorted before that peak period. As a result, would it therefore make sense to ensure you are 'ready to go' (as it were) around this time of year rather than finishing licences etc in the summer and having to wait probably at least until the winter to potentially be offered a contract or place on a type rating course for the upcoming summer season?

Yes you are right. Traditionally airlines will start hiring and training in autumn all the way through to spring so that they have enough pilots for the summer months. The summer period has always been quite idle in terms of hold pool movement.

Hard to believe people are still considering the ATP scheme:

They just sent an email to all those swimming in the pool to let them know there will be NO recruitment in 2013

This is not true. CTC has let the ATP people know that they will have to wait till at least after the summer because recruitment by Easyjet is alot slower at the moment. Nonetheless: sooner or later you will get a job and CTC is one of the few companies that's still delivering pilots in these sad times. Many people applied to CTC the last 1.5 years and only a few got in....
They've also had a recruitment stop the last couple of months to make sure the ATP pool doesn't get too big.

Vipersrt10: Naive as few, ok... if you do not get hired in Spring, you will not get hired this year! Why?
Because summer is the high season, winter is low season!

By the way I know of LOADS of guys now with hours on A320 applying to get in to EZY - so I seriously doubt there is much demand from EZY for CTC ATP if they need pilots!

A friend of mine who works for EZY has told me 500 hours on type is the magic number to be considered!

CTC ATP / Flexicrew - seriously, mind blowing that people still wish to believe in this, of course CTC wants you to believe and other to believe, so you keep spending your money with them! Sweet....!!!

Whats happening with the pretagged Flybe guys?

Some info here regarding current flybe cadets: Flybe cadet schemes to continue despite restructuring | Pilot Career News

Just a thought, but if CTC don't publish the figures then could you not request them via a Freedom of Information request?

It doesn't compromise any data protection issues as you aren't asking for names/ages/gender etc, just a pure number. You can even request it for each month for the last 3 years if you so desire!

Not sure what you'd gain from it especially, but if you wanted to know then it's an option :ok:

It's been some years since I read about this stuff so perhaps it has changed or perhaps I am wrong. The Freedom of Information Act only covers public authorities and governmental departments, NHS, Police, Local Councils, Department for Transport etc. You can request statistics, budgets expenses blah blah under a FOI request.

The Data Protection act on the other hand allows you to ask a private (or public) company to handover any information retained about yourself only. This could mean test scores, instructor notes, payments (in a flying field for example). This could also include patient notes in the NHS or information the police has on record about you...

It would be impossible under these two pieces of legislation to request the information from CTC et al pertaining to number of graduates, destinations etc. You're best bet would be just to ask them directly, whether or not they provide the information is anyone guess.

I have a rough idea of how many had graduated from the ATP hold pool into jobs but don't want to write anything down publicly as most people seem to take any 'rumour' read on this' rumour network' as hard fact.

Edit: Spelling

I bow to your superior knowledge giggitygiggity!

Agree though that simply asking would probably get the answer, they can't seriously expect people to spend out upwards of £30k on CPL/ME/IR and AQC without being honest about their chances of success in the hold pool afterwards...can they?! ;)

When I completed my AQC, someone taking their type rating told me he had been on the database for 3 years. I hear a handful of people have been placed in the last 12 months.

Guys just for curiosity, I would like to know how many of the guys, who have enrolled into this course, have been hired from the airline partner of CTC, especially during this so jobless time period. Thanks for any further response.

Hi Pakythepilot,

It's my understanding that historically all the guys & gals that have completed the ATP course have been placed other than the ones currently swimming and the folks that have found employment on their own afterwards.

I fear this may not be the case going forward mind. With CTC now pumping out way more Wings cadets than before, easyJet very almost at saturation point and no other real partners coming up as far as I know this could be the end of the ATP scheme and therefore pool and perhaps also a huge swell in the Wings pool too.

I really hope I'm wrong as I have a friend in the ATP pool however after receiving an email from CTC a few months back telling her it would be better if she found a job on her own and they would be happy to be a reference she is not holding out much hope.

Hope that helps....all based on hearsay and opinions mind so take it as you wish...

If the employment figure of their graduates was good then they'd use the figure in their marketing. That they don't seems indicative that most graduates struggle to get a job.

The trouble is, CTC will keep training people irrespective of the job market, because they are a business and that's their primary source of revenue. It's not that they don't care whether their graduates all get jobs or not - as it's clearly good for them if you do - it's just not their #1 priority.

@ MR-P
oh it's bad to hear that, I feel really sorry for your friend. I can just image how she felt when she realizes that £10K have been wasted. If what you are saying is true, CTC is not a serious company from my point of view. You can actually advise your student before he she pays and enrolles the course and not after with just a silly letter of apoligize. Beside if I was the CTC boss i would do everything in my power to find her a job just to keep the reputation of school as high as possible in the sector instead of making people think that they are only money interested. Bad story!

Paky, don't make me laugh...

CTC is just a flight school whose only intent is to train wannabes according to certain normal standards. It's an outfit that knows how to sell the dream among its likes like OAA, FTE, Stella and Sabena. That's it, nothing more. I would pay such a large - even larger maybe - amount only if I secured a place in a MPL or mentored scheme.
Promises are only words, nothing else.

redbull to be honest I have never been interested in pursuit a training with CTC or any other super-flight school because I can't simply afford it. In fact the question which I asked before was just for curiosity to know how many people really gain an employment attending these kind of flight schools even during this rough time. Just for it.

So as many of you know the easyJet MPL Programme will be starting soon.
I don't understand one thing though. Why doesn't easyJet just take cadets from the CTC hold pool ?
What's the point of starting a new run of the MPL scheme if there are dozens of cadets already in the hold pool, who would really appreciate a job opportunity ?
Can somebody please explain ?

Thats in no ones interest. The hold pilots have already spent the money.

By starting a new scheme they get more money through the door.

There is probably tax benefits as.well which of course the student won`t see.