Blunderbus and Jumpseat - I am afraid you are right....
and to make things worse
.....Qantas is building a new flight school I hear. To supply them with 3000 new guys in next ten years. I have a feeling others will follow in the west - follow the example of Airlines in China/ Indonesia/ Malaysia who figured out that hiring a 20 year old - giving him a license and signing him up for 20 years with a huge bond and a very low starting salary is much more economical than hiring already experienced guys at high salaries.
That my friends seem to be the future of professional aviation - airline cadet schemes creating young automatons signed up for life long subjugation.
" What pilot shortage ?" I hear management say " we just make them ourselves - and cheap too...."