Whilst the requirements for pilots from the likes of Emirates and Gulf Air et al all sounds like good news, generally their requirements are 4,000 hours of jet time. Traditionally you would have said that when the big boys are recruiting then that is good news for those further down the food chain. That has certainly been the case when BA have been recruiting historically as it meant jobs at Flybe etc have been freed up and they have been forced to lower their entry requirements to man the fleet. BUT I suspect that there will be blood on the floor with the continuing increase in fuel prices pushing some of the marginal niche routes and operators to the wall.
The first thing that happens in a recession is that people stop going on holidays. That then impacts on the charter and loco carriers first. There are already carriers only offering summer contracts to experienced crews and unpaid leave during the off season. Then business travelers decide to conduct meetings via tele conferences and seek major discounts from their travel providers.
The end result is you end up with a bunch of experienced guys looking for work. They have bills to pay just like anyone and beggers can't be choosers so they could well take the jobs that might have been for the ab-initio pilot when times were previously tough for the recruiters.
Add into the mix the fact that a certain loud mouthed CEO of a loco has a war chest of some 1bn quid to play with and you might just see quite a few of the smaller players no longer around. When times are tough you can always look forward to a 1m seat sale which might just tip others over the edge. Also what will come of Alitalia? 99.9% of mergers lead to cost cutting including job cuts so expect a flood of experienced CV's to be hitting HR desks across Europe. And that is without even considering a BMI/Virgin merger. There are reports that the start ups in the former Eastern Bloc are facing tough times. These typically took on ab-initio and self type funded bods. Many of these people will now have the hallowed 500hrs on type and probably an ATPL as well and could well be seeking to move back to the motherland.
Tread carefully and try to minimise your risk. Certainly don't be popping off to the bank and raising 100k on the basis of some marketing hype from the usual suspects.