Wonderbusdriver, you say "It all doesnīt make a whole lot of sense to me…"
Since when did it have to make sense? The men who run the show are beancounters, whose future, (and possibly bonuses), depend on how many dollars, drachmas, shekles, dirhams, pounds or francs they can save the Sheikh - (and here's the magic phrase) - in the short term, 'coz there hasn't been a beancounter born who's looked beyond the next balance sheet to gauge the long-term effects of his latest 'money saving' master plan.
I have to agree with the comment made earlier that there always seem to be enough pilots willing to take whatever's on offer, however poor that is. Sadly, the non-operations management know it, and despite all the blurb about their wanting 'the best', the fact is that all they really want is two bums occupying the two front seats. And the 'bums on seats' could well be read as 'the two bums in the seats' if you get my drift, 'coz that's the way pilots are perceived by such people - as overpaid, underworked bums.
"..if I look at how they want to expand, and from what Iīve heard and read HRH isnīt stupid - on the contrary." I too understand the Chairman to be very astute, but don't for one moment think he has the time to concern himself with anything as 'microeconomic' as whether the pilots are happy over their 2% pay rise as opposed to everyone else in the company getting 5%. (For those who might want to quibble, the 3% automatic annual pay increment is one of the very heavily stressed points in the pilot interview process. To my knowledge, no such inducement is offered to most other staff on initial hiring.) The sad fact is that management will continue to turn the screws a little bit tighter until one of two things happen:
(a) the well of all too willing recruits dries up, which is highly unlikely, for as has been said above, there are always enough pilots out there willing to take whatever's on offer, even if they see it as a short term sheer hell, but one way to get themselves a widebody endorsement. They might not be the pilots the recruiters would prefer to have, but even the most inexperienced (or marginal) pilots will keep the schedule running by being 'bums on seats'.
Or:
(b) a dozen or more pilots resign in a very short time - and for all the bitching and moaning, very few have done so and I believe very few are likely to, if only because of inertia. Until this happens, the men with the pursestrings can continue to tell the Chairman that all is well. And for them, it will be. Accountants have never been able to understand the first thing about the importance of a solid pilot experience base in a rapidly expanding airline. And if the Airline of the Year turns into a can of worms because of their 'clever' cost savings, you can guarantee they won't take the fall. It'll be the bunny - or should that be 'the bum in the seat'.
"But then, maybe I just havenīt quite understood the mentality of the people in charge." Amen to that.