Originally Posted by
Lucifer
On the contrary - there remains a large shortage of experienced captains, trainers and examiners that these retirees fulfil - if that were not the case, Emirates and Cathay rates would be far below what they are for the same people.
Working for free at a junior level is however totally counterproductive and stems from a complete inability to make rational decisions on the part of people deluded with "love" of a career. An possibly lacking the skills as well.
While these guys may be filling a need, in some cases, they are doing so at rates that they would not have accepted had it not been for pensions that they already had. This does have an impact on T&C's. I'm not necessarily criticizing guys who do this, it is a fact of life and I don't think that there is much we can do anyway but it does burn me when a guy shows up with 1, 2 or 3 additional sources of income and proceeds to tell me that he doesn't see a problem with the cost of living here.