I just want to go on record saying that no matter where a professional pilot comes from he is probably as qualified as me, I am not putting anybody down. I had the opportunity to speak to a pilot from Moldova recently, he was flying the A320. Seemed to be a very knowlegeable chap. But in his opinion, there were very few pilots in the old soviet block who met western standards of training and knowledge of english.
But as SAS pilots fear the internal competition from their Baltic corporate sister companies, I would not be so scared, as the shortages of pilots increase, and companies like Ryan Air and Easyjet continues to expand. The pilots from these memberstates in the EU will have a big payincrease. As for the pay in the new east european LCC´s it was not that bad 3500 euroes for a first officer considering the cost of living in Poland. And captains made about 8500.
As for Asia, I think that the people there are at least as smart as me, but people with the intelligence and drive to become a pilot simply persue other carieers. So the predicted shortage i 8000 pilots in China, and 5000 in India.
So the only reason that there is a small surplus in Scandinavia is the high rate of pilots
pr capita. And the fact that most people preffer to work close to family and friends. But if the conditions becomes to bad, Scandinavian pilots will allso move on. The marked works both ways, and when there is a shortage of something the price goes up. And I think the management team in SAS will learn that in the years to come, their attempt at unionbusting, and warfare against their empoyees is going to be very costly in the long run