The Hungry Pilot

In this piece we will discuss the other main route to becoming a professional pilot, airline programs. There are many variations here, some potential risks, some great benefits, so let’s have a look…

What you will find in this article

• Definitions of the most important terms
• A discussion about pros and cons of different variants of cadet schemes
• Tips and recommendations

Terms, acronyms and abbreviations used here

• Ab-initio (or cadet) scheme: A program which is designed to train someone to a level at which they can start flying in a commercial operation. Such a program is often run by or in cooperation with an airline, and as a graduate you often have a guaranteed cockpit job after finishing training
• Ready entry (RE): Someone who has completed flight training and holds all the papers to be hired by a commercial aircraft operator. These pilots typically train in a school not affiliated with an airline, thus bearing all the risk
• MPL (Multi-crew pilot license): First of all, this one exists only in Europe (under EASA), not the US, even though it is a concept from ICAO. The idea is to enable a pilot to operate as a copilot in an airliner (a multi-engine, multi-pilot, turbine-powered aircraft), similar to the frozen ATPL. The main difference is that during MPL training you will have to clock at least 240 flight hours, but the vast majority of those will be flown in a simulator.
  
  The MPL can only be acquired within an airline’s training organization or an external flight school which cooperates with an airline for that purpose. The privileges are restricted to multi-pilot aircraft and operations. For single-pilot operations the specific ratings (and a also CPL if that’s needed) have to be acquired separately, but some crediting of experience is possible

Introduction

According to Boeing’s pilot and technician outlook, the aviation industry will need approximately 660,000 new pilots until 2044. In other words, almost 35,000 new pilots every year are needed over the next 19 years, in commercial passenger and cargo operations alone, not including business aviation and helicopter operations. All of this while the industry attracts less and less new talent. Why? I wrote about this topic here.

If companies are having troubles to fill their cockpit seats, they will at some point begin (or return) to sponsor flight training. Traditionally, many flag and legacy carriers around the world ran these programs, using language and/or nationality, as well as challenging selection processes as a barrier for prospective candidates. Consequently they are picking the, from their point of view, ideal candidates. After big disruptions of the industry, such as 9/11 or the financial crisis 2008, many operators scrapped these programs or at least put them on hold. Now, in 2026, a lot of them resumed and more and more companies are launching their own for the first time, including business jet operators. In Europe we also observe an increasing number of companies dropping language requirements at least for ready entries, for the first time ever, even big names like KLM.

If you are an aspiring professional pilot, this is good news. It means that companies have to lower the price to enter the game, or foot the bill entirely by themselves. It means that proper wages will have to be paid and buzzwords such as „work life balance“ appear on the radar of operators, and subsequently in their job ads and, if you are lucky, also in your life flying the line.

Fully sponsored cadet schemes

This is what you are looking for, unless financing is not really an obstacle for you to overcome. Not piling up a mountain of debt before you have flown even one hour yourself will free your mind and make your life a lot easier. Especially in an industry as volatile as aviation, having a guaranteed job upon completion of your training is like gold. The financial risk is mainly your employers, so putting you to flying on the line is in their utmost interest.

However: There’s no free lunch and if you don’t commit your money you will have to commit your time in the form of a bond with your employer. Similar to the military pathway you will receive a hefty invoice to pay back your training in case you quit before your bond expires. There will also be strict requirements and assessments before you are accepted.

In my opinion the pros outweigh the cons by far. If you can, try to get into such a program.

Self-sponsored cadet schemes

Your national carrier or whatever airline you would like to work for in the future might not offer a fully sponsored path into the cockpit, as described above. The second-best option would be paying for the training yourself, but still with a guaranteed job after graduation. And that’s what you usually get from a self-sponsored program.

As always, make sure you read anything you are going to sign carefully, before signing. The agreement with your future employer ideally comes with some sort of compensation clause, in case they cannot offer you a job after finishing your training. You should get money back in that case. If you drop out during training or if you decide to do something else once you have finished it, you should ideally not owe anything to the company which runs the cadet scheme.

As mentioned above, this would be my second choice in case there is no fully sponsored option available to you or if you have failed an assessment for such already. Your future employer and the involved flight schools are well aware of the financing issue and will usually offer assistance with securing the funds for the training.

Tips and recommendations

Pay to fly (PTF) – what is it and why to avoid it

Do not mistake a PTF-scheme with one of the programs mentioned above, it is something fundamentally different. PTF usually is offered by some “agency” which connects operators in need of pilots with pilots in need of a job. Sounds quite normal so far. The catch here is that the pilot will pay the airline to fly their aircraft, not the other way around. No, I’m not kidding.

These schemes target pilots who have completed their basic training already and hold at least a CPL or fATPL. They will sell you something in the range of 300 to 500 flight hours as a copilot in an airliner, often also including the initial type rating and the base training, which consists of 6 take-offs and landings in the actual aircraft. They may even promise you to pay you a salary while you fly these hours. But guess who’s actually paying your salary. Correct, you pay your own salary. Your money is just taking a little detour through your “employer”, making you pay taxes unnecessarily as you had the money in your pocket already in the past.

The price for PTF is often around 50k € or even more, leaving you without a job in the first place once you have flown the hours you bought. You might be promised to be hired by your operator, but I wouldn’t give anything about such a promise. For the operator it would mean that they would have to pay your salary in the future. It is cheaper and more lucrative for the agency and the operator to sell the same “package” to the next guy who is willing and desperate enough to take such a great “opportunity”.

In conclusion there’s only one thing to say: Don’t PTF, never ever! In the end you might have the hours you need so other operators start looking at you, but you don’t do yourself and your fellow (aspiring) pilots across the industry a favour. You do the opposite as you build experience with operators who will most likely be frowned upon because of how they conduct business, which apparently includes how they find their pilots. And you play an active part in the deterioration of the terms and conditions in our profession.

Assessment preparation

Many airlines will give you only one chance to prove you are worthy to become one of their pilots. That means you better come well prepared to the assessment.

Every operator is different. They all have their criteria for future cadets in place and the various processes and procedures to select the right candidates. Some might outsource parts of the recruitment process or even all of it to external providers, who take care of everything in accordance with the airline’s requirements.

So your preparation usually starts with carefully reading every bit of information the airline or the recruitment agency provide about the company, the job, the training and also about the selection process itself. After reading this and after having done your own research you should have a clear picture of what to expect. Some companies even provide samples of the tests they are using, make sure you check them out.

Commercial providers for assessment preparation and coaching

There are plenty of them out there and usually, one provider would cover several different airlines. We already established that there’s no free lunch, so they will also take your money in return for their help. What you get for your money can differ quite a bit between providers, even though they all claim their courses resemble the actual tests.

The good thing here is, there are plenty of people out there who have done these assessments before and who have also paid for professional preparation. Fire up your browser and read the boards and forums on these topics, there are several out there. There is a good chance you will find something like PPRuNe (in English, covering different countries and companies) or Pilotenboard (in German). These boards offer a wealth of information which should give you more clues on what to expect during your assessment and on the selection of a provider for preparation.

I have used these providers myself in the past and found them helpful. I am not saying that it is an absolute must or that you will fail if you don’t use them. It is something everyone has to decide individually, but keeping in mind that you will often have only one chance with your desired airline, it is not a bad idea to invest a bit of money.

The assessment itself

Most details on the dos and dont’s can be found online in the places I mentioned above. A few general tips here:

• Show up early to the assessment and have a plausible excuse if you are late
• Make sure you are in top shape, so go to bed early the night before and eat a light breakfast
• Suit up, you want to make a good impression
• Follow all instructions from the staff on site carefully. Read every bit of information, every instruction and every question carefully during the tests
• Don’t make tight travel itineraries. If an assessment is scheduled to end let’s say at 17:00 and you have a flight to catch at 18:00, you will be stressed already the moment you wake up that day

Depending on the company you might get feedback about your performance already during or at the end of the day, or a day or even a week later. Unfortunately this feedback is usually just “pass” or “fail”. Especially in case you fail you might be interested why, but very rarely will anyone tell you. This leads us to the last part:

Coping with failure

When I went to my first assessment for the national carrier of Austria over 20 years ago, I failed it. Missed my only chance for paid training, trying the military didn’t cross my mind. The only mistake I made back then was to believe that I do not have what it takes to be a pilot. I was wrong but I did not know that at this point, so I got completely discouraged and only 3 years later I picked up this topic again.

Stay focused and do not let your goal out of sight. There are plenty of ways into a professional cockpit. You might even get a seat with that highly coveted national carrier in your home country later on, coming back as a ready entry. I know, I keep repeating myself (at least for those who read my other articles). Don’t ever give up, in the end your perseverance will always pay off.