Chimbu,
I agree. We are heamorraging pilots out of the back door, alienating those inside, failing to attract pilots through the front door and still the penny hasn't dropped that they have seriously miscalculated and mishandled the whole recruiting situation. Other airlines however have not and view EK as a rich source of pilots.
The writing was on the wall several years ago when they demoted training captains due to the 'lack in the then training requirement' just at the point where we had the flex to get ahead of the game to 'avoid' all of our current problems.
They are now taking the more expensive options in an attempt to 'trap' the problems by reducing experience requirements, outsourcing training and going on 'road shows'... where they may have convinced some parts of the world EK is ok but others have seen through the fog of HR at the reality of what EK is really offering... not much!
Now we are 'mitigating' the situation by grounding flights and delaying orders all because of the cheap sordid way EK do their management.
They may be 22nd on the list of Ts & Cs but they are last on many peoples list of airline options.
More are set to leave and recruitment is drying up. They deserve everything they get, bring on the fat lady.