Comparing the UK to the US is apples and oranges. There’s never been an hours requirement to enter the airlines in the UK and as such when you’re giving 200 hour cadets jet experience then there’s never going to be a shortage of jet qualified pilots to go to the large carriers. The difference is that unions over there actually get the job done and companies are interested in holding onto skilled workers.
The Emirati locals might get preferential treatment when it comes to redundancies etc. Don’t think that the same wouldn’t happen in Virgin. Foreign hires are more expensive to the company because of the manpower required to get the company in a position to be able to sponsor them. Any sign of downturn and I’m sure it will be sorry we no longer can sponsor your visa, out you go.
Virgin will pay the successful applicants the same rate as UK pilots, so I don’t know where you think this new cheap labour pay scale is coming from. It’s a collective agreement. As I say it’s down to BALPA to actually negotiate a salary and QOL that retains their crews. They should be starting with at least 15% since the airline moved from 750 hour contracts to 900. Still cheaper than their Delta counterparts who got an effective 18% this year.