Guvnor,
What are you on about re: thousands of hours of training for new pilots in an airline? This is simply not true. For example, my airline hires pilots of all experience levels from 250 hour Cherokee to thousands of hours fast-jet-military pilots. They all go through exactly the same training programme. The programme includes groundschool, sim training, a few circuits in the real thing and then some line training sectors and you're off. It is exactly the same for all pilots regardless of experience. Do you honestly think that the 250 hour pilot is going to be flying with a training captain until he unfreezes his ATPL?? Do you think that the 250 hour pilot has regular checks above and beyond what an experienced pilot has? Do you think that the 250 hour pilot has extra sim sessions above and beyond the twice-yearly sim check and annual line check? Well I have news for you because they do not. What is this "backup" you speak of re training captains, HR etc? Maybe you mean if you are having difficulties during an OPC/LPC or something, but this backup is provided regardless of level of experience, and the "new" recruits bar one or two do not need to make use of this facility at all. Even if they do, I do not see how this could cost much more than a couple of hundred pounds for an extra hour or so in the sim. In fact, low hour pilots are paid less than Full-ATPL pilots so the company actually saves a great deal of money, especially with pensions factored in. You obviously do not have a very good grasp of how modern airline training departments work in this country. Yes the first few thousand hours of flying on the line provides a new pilot a lot of very important and valuable experience, but not at a cost to the company. They are saving money due to the significantly lower salaries they pay low-hour pilots.
Lazlo