First and foremost, even with the lack of qualified applicants available to the regionals today, a DUI will be a problem for a long time into the future. If for nothing else, it presents a problem for flying into Canada, as well as for passing background checks prior to employment. I'm not passing judgement on the guy because of a DUI (we all make mistakes in life) but rather how will this affect him in being "the most qualified applicant" when he tries to apply to an airline. Prior to spending the huge ammount of money that the flight schools charge for their fast track to the airlines programs only to be faced with explaining the DUI everytime he sets foot in an interview, he should try and get the DUI expunged from his record prior to starting down the road of flight training. After doing that, All ATP's has a good program that seems to place a lot of graduates into airlines. I've flown with a good number of them, and they all seem to be pretty sharp in their flying skills.