I don’t understand where numbers of people being recruited onto other fleets makes a difference to the pain of an equipment freeze. Everyone has the same freeze when they first join. A few lucky people do get released before the end of their freeze period, and always have done if it suits the company, but it’s fairly rare. When you’ve served your 5 years, you jump to your next fleet of choice ahead of everyone that joined since you. If a large number of people have been recruited onto your new fleet since you joined, it is actually much better for you because you’ll join the new fleet on an even higher relative seniority. If no one had been recruited since you, you’d end up bottom of the status list on that new fleet. It has nothing to do with whether BA cares about short haul pilots. People recruited to long haul who want to get to short haul have just the same freeze. If there was no recruitment going on, you would still have your 5 year freeze just as you would if there was double the current recruitment going on.