Clearly more is going on here than is visible. I doubt that LL has all the facts. AS is merely a puppet for a management team who are only interested in the balance sheet at the end of the month and will look no further ahead than that.
A management team who believe that they can treat a large group of professional people as casual labour.
Who are now finding that the only people available on the pilot market are BA retirees and US crews. The rest of the aviation world now experiencing a mild boom and not interested in joining an outfit with a reputation and record of poor employee management.
Had they not introduced policies that have led to dissatisfaction and unprecedented resignations they would be less likely to be in the position of having to offer exaggerated salaries to Brits already on fat pensions and to Americans who would otherwise avoid this area.
Short term savings have led to long term costs.
Reinstatement of the previous credit system, a realistic pay rise and a fair and consistent upgrade policy might put this airline back where it was before.
Nothing less will.