Pilot Careers Live

01 Nov 2025

Following the visit to both CAE and Skyborne earlier in the year, I was pretty sold on the idea of starting on the EasyJet MPL scheme with CAE, and had spent the last few months finding out as much as I could about the selection process and what would give me the best chance of passing, as well as spending time figuring out how I might be able to cover the costs of it. Because you only have two possible attempts at applying, and there was a lot going on at work, I didn’t quite feel fully ready to apply just yet, so when Pilot Careers Live came around again, I decided to go again, to get an update on what was going on across the industry, as well as find out from CAE how much longer the scheme would be open for (as from my research, I knew that the contract they had with EasyJet was due to end sometime in the new year)

As always it was a really insightful event, I spent a lot of time chatting to all of the various flight schools and airlines which were there, even the ones that I didn’t think were for me. It was interesting to see the Ryanair future flyer academy and how strong their presence and drive for recruitment was.

The indication I got from CAE, was that I should get the application in asap. I tried to find out from them if the EasyJet contract was likely to be renewed, and did not get a strong indication that it would be - I realise this kind of thing is all behind closed doors until they are able to announce it, but all they were able to tell me was that they were still in talks, and that they only had openings on the courses for a couple of months into 2026.

I maybe foolishly (with hindsight) took this as meaning it was important to get the application in, but I still had a little bit of time to do so.

And again, as always, I left this event with a fresh bout of enthusiasm, and confidence that I was making the right career move, and looking forward to getting my application in and getting started.