Do they in fact need any human pilots on the flight deck in cruise? With the ever increasing reliability and coverage of modern data comms. is there any reason why the aircraft can’t be controlled remotely from … say a repurposed call centre in Mumbai? The potential cost savings are every airline managers wet dream and therein spells the beginning of the end of piloting as a career.
Bear in mind the USAF has had UAVs tootling around the world for at least two decades now. And it seems like they’ve got the hang of it.