total time doesn’t say much about ability
But the fact that someone has sat in the same company for years does?
Your reference to AF “downing tools” has no relationship with seniority whatsoever
I mentioned the downing of tools as a counterpoint to your statement that seniority based airlines have better terms and conditions. I didn't say it was because of seniority... A seniority based airline has recently gone on strike in an attempt to gain better terms and conditions, thats a fact. It doesn't sound like the promised land of utter bliss and contentment to me.
So let’s say you take only hours into account. Then guys coming from military, cargo or executive ops are putt in line behind the guys flying 900 hrs a year LoCo (or even 1000 hrs if they come from the likes of Lion air) whilst there operation might be more demanding. The person who does 5 years in Ryanair is not necessarily more experienced then the person flying in one of the above mentioned operations for the same amount of time.
i'm not quite sure I understand what you are getting at? It all depends on the airline and their type of operation. If the entrant lacked the experience of that type of airline operation then a non seniority system would promote those who were therefore better at the job. A Ryanair pilot flying 900 hours a year
at Ryanair is more experienced in that airlines operation than a cargo guy with the same number of hours, so therefore
at Ryanair he would probably be a more suitable candidate for command... Easyjet employs a system where hours in other companies are taken into account which contribute towards 'easyjet' experience, lessening time to command if one is deemed suitable.... which I believe is based on performance in simulators and checks. No problem there, those who are suitable get to be a captain and are promoted on merit, not because 10 years ago they happened to apply for a vacancy.
Edit: For management it will always be cheaper to hire DEC on CPT scale 0 then to do a command course (especially with horizontal movement) and to train a brand new FO at the same time.
So its cheaper for a company, allows free movement, and saves training time? Before it is suggested that this blocks FO's from ever getting a command, I know one company (funnily enough that didn't have a seniority list) that allowed experienced FO's to join and gain fast track promotion if they worked hard, showed they could adapt to the company operation and ticked the boxes in the sim...