Superpilot
That 3000 applications figure has been bandied about for a while now. Needless to say it comes from those who have a vested interest in keeping the current pilots on their toes by suggested there is someone else willing to do the job. Has anyone ever actually seen these alleged 3000 application? I doubt it. Do you really think it likely there are 3000 applications on file? No airline has that many, and FR is hardly the first choice for those job seeking.
But for arguments sake, let's say there are. But how many are actually suitable for airline employment? And how likely are the training department to be able to train so many, given the mess it is currently?
Also, most of the applicants to these schools are low timers. Not a whole lot of point in having all 200 hr FO's and no captains. There is an experience deficit in FR and 3000 new FO's wont make that go away in the short-medium term. Or even the long term, as they're not gonna get too many hours without a skipper to fly with em.
So in short, the whole issue of thousands of folk allegedly wanting into FR seems to me to be a management myth, created with the firm intention of spreading fear.
So start doing those things angry workers normally do......!
That'd be a good start.