Further to the reply from Capt. Airprox, the routing across the alps was looked at very carefully by the then fleet manager. As mentioned, the main problem was the requirement to reach 14000ft within 4 minutes of a decompression occuring, which thus restricts which areas of the Alps the aircraft could operate over.
Easy swimmer should be aware of this, as the information was published in a notac (14/03 to jog his memory) which was available to all crews and later included in part C of the ops manual. This included all the data relating to limiting high ground enroute between RIPUS and ODINA south bound and ABESI and ELMUR north bound. Prior to the route starting on the Q400 this information was submitted to both the UK CAA and also to the Italian Aviation Authorities, both of whom wanted to see that the route could operate safely, and both of these bodies approved the operation.
On these grounds, to suggest that the operation of the Q400 over the Alps by Flybe was unsafe is grossly misleading. If Easyswimmer wasn't happy with the situation when he operated it he should have discussed it with the Captain. If the Captain wasn't happy with it then he should have queried it when his roster came out, and should also never have signed the area competency certificate on his previous line check as that is a statement that he, not the company, considers himself competent to operate to all airfields (and along the routes to them) other than cat C airfields which are seperately trained for.
Regarding crew qualification, whilst the question at 2000 hours may well be "where is my command", just asking doesn't mean that you will get it. There are many with more hours than that who have failed command assessments, because it has to be said that to have the required skills and the correct mental attitude for command at that stage is quite rare. The company requirements for command are 2500 hours, which may be reduced to 2000 at the discretion of the Flight ops director, but the number of dispensations that may be granted is limited, I have been told, by the airlines insurers to 7% of the captains ie if you have 100 dash captains 7 of them may have less than 2500 hours. As a newly promoted captain cannot fly with an F/O with less than 100 hours on type the minimum number of hours on the flight deck should never be able to be less than about 2300 so it is hard to see how the 2000 total nil mentioned slipped through the net.
This is generally fairly standard for UK turboprop operators, as nil mentioned Loganair seem to be using slightly lower hours for command. To put this into perspective,in March one UK 737 operator (not flybe or easjet) was promoting Captains with 2700hrs TT. With generally longer sectors this could well give less exposure to the critical phases of the flight (take-off,approach and landing) than would be experienced by a 2000 hour pilot on a regional turboprop.
Finally regarding easyswimmers attack on the training department (I believe capt airprox is a fellow member), I would assume from his or her post that they joined the company in about 2001/02, at which time the dash training left something to be desired. Since then we have doubled the number of TREs and TRIs, trained many more line trainers, added extra sim slots to the initial course and as mentioned the most important one, got rid of JT. Of Easyswimmers list of why training was "poor to very poor" the only training related issue was the local ways of doing things, and that issue is currently being addressed.