Pilot Careers Live
18 Apr 2026
As you may know from a pervious post, the main purpose of going to Pilot Careers Live event this time, was to confirm that there wasn’t really any significant changes in the options for flight training. As my plan was, straight after this event, to start the process of going part-time at work, and sign up for the modular route with Aeros. Given world events at the moment, I was fully expecting there to be less of a drive for recruitment from the airlines and generally a bit of a more cautious feel in the industry, certainly not to hear of any new schemes being announced. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
I arrived a little after the official start, following a hotel stay overnight and a short ‘flightline’ bus ride to T5, as I’ve found in previous occasions that you end up queuing for a while and then there’s a bit of a crush to get in the doors to the popular exhibitors. But I’d still highly recommend doing this if you’ve never been before as you’ll be surprised how fast the day goes!
For me on this occasion though, as I wasn’t expecting to get a huge amount of new information, and was really targeting a few specific stands, I didn’t think I’d need the whole day, and arriving a little later was more calm experience.
The first surprise for me was that EasyJet and CAE announced at the event that they had re-opened the MPL scheme, the same one that I was all set to apply for at the end of last year & missed out on.
Of course the price had gone up a little, now to €115,000, but having that option back on the table, throws a bit of a spanner in my current plan.
CAE have committed to another 1000 pilots over the next 5 years, very similar to the last time they had an arrangement with CAE, however, CAE were only contracted to take 100 cadets a year, 500 in total, so where are the other 500 coming from?
This is where the second big surprise came in. They have also now partnered with Skyborne to provide the other 500.
The two schemes are very similar, both have a selection process at the beginning and a job offer before you start training. With CAE you do the MPL, as before. With Skyborne, you do an integrated ATPL course. Both include the type rating, and get you into that coveted right-hand seat, and when you factor the living costs in (which one includes and the other doesn’t) they end up being roughly equal in overall price too at around £130,000.
I was aware that in recent years, EasyJet had been taking on modular students. However, I did learn at the event that now that they have these two schemes open, their preference will be: the partnered schemes, followed by people who’d done an integrated route, and then only looking at modular if they still couldn’t match the demand. Which was a little disappointing to hear, as it meant they were almost now ruled out as an option, if I still opted to go ahead with Aeros, which was still a very viable option, working out at nearly £40,000 cheaper!
So I now have a very difficult choice to make about which route I take. The two partnered schemes costing significantly more, but having a job guarantee, and a fixed timeline to get me where I want to be (assuming I get through selection), vs the modular route which financially makes a lot more sense, and can start much sooner, but means I will be job hunting after and potentially rules out one of my target airlines.
A very tough choice, with pros and cons to each.
I spent some more time wondering around some of the other stands including BALPA, which I found out was free to be a member of while undertaking flight training, so I signed up, and also entered their prize draw to win a free course on passing airline selections.
Overall, a highly useful day as always, with more surprises than I expected, and it has left me with a fairly significant dilemma on which route is going to be the best for me to take. I’ll be pondering that over the coming days, and post again once I’ve made the choice.
One thing I know for certain this time though is that I won’t let the opportunity pass me by this time, and as soon as I’ve made the choice, the application will be going straight in as I’m so keen to just get started now!
