Dummy,
BA cadets share a poky room in the desert with the odd black widow and some cockroaches. "All expenses paid" means they are given $12 a day to live on. This has to pay for food, and petrol to drive to the food shops, because there sure as hell ain't food shops in the desert. They are sent to the States because it is cheaper to train them there than it is in the UK. They will work 6 days a week, starting at 5am in the summer (it gets too hot for the aircraft to take off in the afternoon) and in the winter, sunrise until sunset. They do not get holidays, not even Boxing day, off. BA currently needs to lose about 300 pilots, and has a retirement rate of about 200 pilots each year. So in 2 years time there will be a shortfall. As Bigpants pointed out, it takes nearly 2 years to train a new pilot and BA needs to be prepared for when the upturn happens. And it will happen.