According to TCAS EK has a highly qualified team of Senior First Officers with a vast wealth of airline flying experience, therefore it's okay for an Osaka to go with a Captain and 2 SFO's.
The Captain can rest in the BCRC safe in the knowledge that for his 4+ hours away from the flight deck, while the aircraft cruises (sometimes) over the Himalayas, Kashmir and into western China, the company have entrusted their brand new A345 full of high fare paying pax and tonnes of valuble cargo to a couple of 'super-dooper' guys who aren't quite good enough at the moment to take an A330 from DXB- DOH, BAH, MCT etc.
Has anybody looked at the categories of SFO's leaving EK? How close are they to their command courses? Isn't EK losing the very guys that they'll need in the medium term (i.e. 1-3 years) to crew their expansion plans? Looks like more DEC's on the way. Has ANYBODY got a definitive figure on how many guys have or are leaving? Are they mainly Capts? Mainly SFO's? Bit of both?