But you have to spend 100,000 pounds on training to get on board.
Oh they may also "poach" some pilots from other places; the buggers.
British Airways is poised to launch its biggest recruitment drive in a decade. The airline is expanding pilot numbers by 800 and it’s using YouTube to entice pilots willing to meet the £100,000 training cost.
The airline, which currently has 3,200 pilots, says it’s increasing pilot numbers by 25% because the airline is expanding its fleet. This means current pilots will be reshuffled to fly the new aircrafts, which includes the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A380, creating space for new pilots.
A YouTube video has already been posted by the airline to attract a wider range of applicants and to advertise a new training programme (any MT readers wanting a career change can check out the video here). It’s well known that becoming an airline pilot isn’t cheap: it costs around £100,000 to train, which is funded by the trainees themselves. So BA’s come up with a solution: the ‘Future Pilot Programme,’ which will provide half of the new pilots. The programme means aspiring pilots will still have to meet the costs themselves but they can repay the money later. They’ll also be guaranteed a job with BA at the end of it, which should make it easier to raise the money to cover training costs. The remaining 400 recruits will be poached from rival airlines and the Armed Forces.
BA’s recruitment drive comes on the tail of Virgin Atlantic’s announcement that it’s undertaking a major recruitment take-off of its own. More than 1,000 new jobs will be created for cabin crew and pilots as the airline also expands its aircraft carriers.
It might seem odd that the airline industry is expanding at the same time as grappling with soaring fuel prices and economic uncertainty. Steve Ridgway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, admitted yesterday that last year was the ‘toughest economic period for aviation’ due to ‘consumer confidence flatlining and higher fuel prices.’ On the other hand, there are some positive signs for the industry. Virgin Atlantic managed to reverse £132m of losses to post a £18.5m pre-tax profit in 2010. British Airways also swung back to a first-half profit, posting an operating profit of €210m. Considering the airline industry was one of many to implement a recruitment freeze during the recession, it seems airlines have overcome the jet lag and realise they now have a shortage of pilots.
Panama Jack wrote:Can I be a Boeing 787 Captain with approximately 4000 hours on type, Beefitarian?
Ah my other airline, ANA - (Allways napping air).
If you mean approximately as in "all the time we can sqeeze you in on our equipment," which of course will be the MS flight sim, you buy one of our uniforms and sign my $10000 bond, you sure can!
Can you bring your own USB rudder pedal controller for our junky PC?
Looked at their Future Pilot Program website, you still need to put down 84,000 UK Pounds for it. Assuming you can finish the course and get hired then BA will pay back the money over the next 7 years.
What a ripoff. If you get sponsored by Flybe they will pay 19800GBP+VAT of the 84000GBP course fee plus they will cover the 13500GBP cost of getting you a dash8 type rating:
(fill in the form and you'll be able to download the prospectus with the financial info).
A friend of mine did this course and now works for Flybe, and it's apparently a great company to work for with decent pay. He went straight from graduating to the right seat of a dash8. Not sure how typical that is.
Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. George Orwell
Disclaimer: The above post was not meant to offend anyone.
Does anyone know if you get a discount if you paid 30,000 for a MD80 Type rating? Kind of a pay it forward for suckers, mouth breathers and Canadian troglodytes? Anyone? Bueller?
80gs will take you from 0 hrs to a right seat at BA. It is then paid back over 7 years, sounds to me like free training over the long term. Certainly better than trying to come up with the money to pay off that debt. No reduced salary over the 7 yr term. I'd say not bad in today's economies.
Remind me of the first years salary with Air Canada ?
Damn! It's (Air Canada) not from 0 to a right seat.... Must still be a deal after what I can read in this topic
Edited for Flaps 1 Billion.
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Last edited by TG on Thu Aug 18, 2011 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Read the program on the BA site, it is indeed 0-right seat. I suppose you can go out and do it yourself, try and get a job and be lumbered with the debt. Or, sign up for this program, do the training and get the money back.
Hmmmm.
Anyway, I'm not there, just think it's a good program for newbs. Any program that pays a massive sum of your ab initio training isn't bad.
Looking 10 years from now I think the airlines have it right. They will train people from nothing, specialize them in their own procedures and in return those people will have only two options, stay with the company or quit the industry.
I won't be surprised if they come up with a new type of PPC where training a guy to go from BA to Air France is going to cost as much as building them up from 0.
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Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. George Orwell
Disclaimer: The above post was not meant to offend anyone.
Flaps 1 Billion wrote:Read the program on the BA site, it is indeed 0-right seat. I suppose you can go out and do it yourself, try and get a job and be lumbered with the debt. Or, sign up for this program, do the training and get the money back.
Hmmmm.
Anyway, I'm not there, just think it's a good program for newbs. Any program that pays a massive sum of your ab initio training isn't bad.
So it is essentially zero risk? If for whatever reason you don't get a job with BA at the end (either you fail the tests, or BA doesn't need as many pilots), you don't have to pay for the training? If that is the case then it is indeed a pretty good deal, even though you still have to pay it back (which won't be a problem if you're working for BA).
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