You’re not thinking it through though. If captains are ‘culled’, they will be demoted to FOs as we’ve not taken any direct entry commands for at least 12 months. They won’t chop a captain from the airline without offering them a demotion first unless they agree to a redundancy. Not that I think its likely to happen but redundancies will be based on the order of which they signed a contract with easyJet.
To the other that said we were contracted with CAE to take X number of cadets every year etc... EasyJet wouldn’t be a FTSE100 company if they hadn’t signed they contract with ample break clauses. They’re not idiots! Presumably there is a fine or similar for breaking that contract, but they will certainly be options for them.