HEALTH WARNING: NONE OF THE FOLLOWING HAS ANY OFFICIAL BASIS!
If the FTE course at Jerez is flagged up then all is not doom and gloom. The guys tagged would I imagine be at the top of the list and be carefullly watched by a top chap who is the liason bloke (top chap in all senses of the word). There have been a few instances of guys with type ratings and lots of experience not fitting the mould so maybe a decision to grow from seed has been taken? Also, just because you are on the Jerez list doesn't confirm anything as I understand there have been a couple of instances where hindsight gave cause for question shall we say!
As for redundancies - who knows! The plan is for a change in fleet composition and the point about higher frequency flying needing more crews is a good one but then that bitch Carmen is due back running rostering so the much vaunted 3 - 4 sector days could be back on with a corresponding reduction in crew needs.
On balance (and this is where the real heath warning comes!!) I would personally think that we are not overcrewed, just not being well utilised, some are doing the cube root of cock all, some are up on the limits, rostering is poo essentially. As to how the merger will change things, mixed fleet flying is here in a big way as all pilots have been instructed (normally we are requested / advised) to complete a bid form for both base and type which includes combinations of 75/6, 75/3, 76/3 and 73 old and new.
Anyway, my head hurts now and I guess I don't really know the answers! What I will say is, for all it's faults, TFly is a good set up with some great T&Cs and my personal view is that if the merger goes ahead things will improve. The various CCs are hell bent on merging T&Cs up so we get the best of both worlds. The company will want to up productivity which is fine because otherwise there will be no job attached to the T&Cs!