Pay-to-fly schemes for young pilots must stop

https://www.eurocockpit.be/stories/20150428/pay-to-fly-schemes-for-young-pilots-must-stop

When young pilots have to pay an airline for flying its aircraft and passengers, something is seriously wrong. This is why the European Cockpit Association strongly denounces this unacceptable – but rapidly growing – phenomenon, practiced by airlines and intermediary agencies in Europe, and calls upon EU decision-makers to ban such “Pay-to-fly” (P2F) schemes. These schemes – also called “self-sponsored line training” – require newly trained pilots to buy a package of flight hours to gain flight experience. Usually, these flight hours are part of the ‘type rating’ – a standard in-house training course on a specific type of aircraft – which is part of every pilot’s professional career.