It's going to happen and it will be (at least initially) a success. It's going to be the same operation except in name but minus the debt. NLH v1 wasn't as low cost as it was made out to be. For the public it was but internally there were a lot of inefficiencies. The operation wasn't lean enough due to multiple AOCs and vanity projects led by people with a legacy carrier mentality. Lessons will have been learnt from NLH v1. Furthermore, governments and XAAs will be keen to cut red tape and offer incentives for airlines to restart. I can even see the AOCs being rubber stamped on the basis that the post holders, company manuals, standards and SOPs will largely be identical to the NLH model. On the topic of employment, a UK AOC will only be allowed to employ Brits. And I would put the number of current redundant B787 rated Brits at somewhere around 150 +/- 25.