Not long ago many of the top airlines were offering full sponsorship all the way into the cockpit of their aircraft, but these seem to have dried up. Why?

A few years ago top airlines such as British Airways, Thomas Cook and Monarch were offering schemes where by they sponsor and train you directly with a guarantee that as long as you pass you will be flying for them.

They would send you off to their approved flying school. Then Not only would they pay for your training but in a lot of cases they would support your living expenses during training. These were the good days of pilot sponsorhip schemes where by you would be looked after and pampered by your airline.

And then came...

You guessed it! 9/11,

The uncertaity that 9/11 bought meant that many airlines closed their pilot sponsorship schemes including British Airways. The dip in air traffic immediateley after 9/11 meant that newly qualified pilots found it hard to get that first job.

But as air traffic has recovered and increased in recent years we have not seen many of those old schemes bought back into service. For example the British Airways scheme closed in 2002, 6 years on their scheme is still suspended.

I have looked long and hard to find a traditional airline pilot sponsorhip, but they just are not around these days.

Atlantic Airlines

In fact the only UK airline (at the time of writing) offering pilot sponsorships is Atlantic Airways. It's a sad fact, but this freight airline is one of the only airlines left still offering a full direct sponsorship package including cover for living expenses.

Lets be grateful that Atlantic Airlines are still offering an excellent scheme, where by on completion of training you will be offered a job as one of their pilots for many years. Their scheme is the best of whats avaliable currently and so competition is natually fierce.

The New Route

Instead of re-introducing pilot sponsorship schemes, many airlines have taken to a new way of recruiting the next generation of pilots.

Instead of having their own direct sponsorship schemes they instead recruit new pilots from third party training organisations. These offer their own kind of pilot sponsorship where by they will pay for your training based on the fact you will pay it back once you are recruited by an airline.

Examples include CTC Wings and Flight Training Europe.

Typically the pilot training organisation will recruit students directly. Many claim that they will be sponsoring you however the sponsorship they offer has to be guaranteed by you getting a security bond.

Oh No! A Security Bond...

This basically means they will only train you if you can guarantee the cost of training with a security bond. So if you fail to complete the training or if you can not get a job aftwewards then you will be liable for paying off this bond.

A typical bond you will be required to get from a bank will be in the region of £60,000.

These pilot training organisations are partnered with some major airlines that now rely on these schemes instead of their own sponsorship schemes. On completing training the organisation you trained with will help you to get a job with one of their partner airlines.

It's a buy now, pay later scheme...

If you are successful then that security bond will be deducted slowly out of your salary from the airline that recruits you.

However there is not guarantee of a job even though your training organisation might have strong links with its partner airlines. Therefore you may be liable to paying off a large debt yourself.

Living Expenses

The other downside with these schemes is that most of these pilot training organisations offering sponsorhips will not help you with living expenses during your training. So, even if you do pass selection and manage to get that security bond you will still need to find a way to cover living costs throughout your training.

HOLD ON, it's not all doom and gloom...

Despite the negatives organisations such as CTC Wings do work with the airlines to ensure that their training standards are of a high quality, as well as ensuring they only select the people onto the schemes who have the best chance of completing training and getting hired.

This if course does mean that the selection process is tough and competitive and that unfortunately the majority of applicants will not succeed.

The Perfect Alternative for Airlines

These type of pilot training schemes offer a perfect risk free alternative for the airlines based on the following.

• They do not have to finance any pilot training themselves.
• They get to choose which new graduates they recruit.
• They are no longer responsible for the training of new pilots.

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