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...."
Then of course oil will go to 100$ a barrel and the pilot shortage will very suddenly come to an end - keeping in mind that we can't even get our pay to keep up with inflation in the current good times I am sure 100$ oil will really help our conditions.....