There will be a shortage of pilots in Australia, at levels of aviation, within the next 3 to 5 years.
QF are recruiting up to 200 pilots, from now until the next 12 months (that includes current recruitment drive).
QF needs up to 800 pilots during now and within the next 10 years, to cover retirements, only.
A news article was published in the "Australian Business Traveler magazine", about two weeks ago, saying,
QF will order the A350 or 787X in 2019, for a 2022 delivery (I'd say it's a B747 replacement), nobody is talking about that on pprune.
There are at least 150 Oz pilots in the U.S now and i see that number climbing to 300 in the next 18 months to 24 months.
The rate of retirement in the U.S airlines from now, until the next 10 years, has some extra ordinary figures, which will take time to understand.
That's the reason why QF will set up a flying Academy, i'd say will start no later than January 2020, the first cadets will graduate by the end of 2021,
the academy will produce up to 100 graduates per year, from 2022, and that's when QF will need the numbers to cover gaps, within all their group
of airlines.
QF had a cadet scheme in the 70's, it's returning and here to stay.
The cadet scheme will only produce 50% of the pilots needed, to cover future aircrew requirements.