It is without doubt a cost saving measure and of course relieves the pressure on the training department.
However all this worry over “standards falling” needs to be offset against the fact that sim check or not, these A320 DEPs will still have to pass the initial BA “short” course with not a huge amount of time to get used to the SOPs and BA, erm, “philosophy” when it comes to how we operate. It’s not like they pass an interview and start flying the line the next day is it? I know a few highly capable people from ezy back when I joined who failed the sim check at BA for who knows what reason, and they are every bit if not more capable than me, so go figure. If you can fly an Airbus for ezy/shamrock/TC you can most likely fly it just as well for BA and if you can’t you won’t get past the sim short course or line training.
Still plenty of time to **** up if you aren’t up to scratch. And let’s face it, if there is a sudden spike in failures from guys who didn’t have to jump through the sim ride hoop then the “trial” will be ended pronto given that would be a far most costly and time consuming issue for the various beancounting silos that make up what used to be called BA.
I really don’t see this affecting the price of fish tbh.