Tsalta, et al,
From a practical point of view some pilots have already started looking overseas to contracts, etc. Not a mass exodus yet but some guys are keeping their options open. The company has decided that 65 pilot positions redundant on the 737 should see them through at least the next 12 months, assuming of course that the economic situation doesn't deteriorate massively from where it is (they are trying for no involuntary redundancies by the way, most will be displaced to the e-jet, V-aus, part time, LWOP, etc). I'm sorry if I sound Naive, but I'm genuinly interested to hear from someone with a bit of business nous;
1) If the business situation is so bad at
VB why didn't they go for a bigger redundancy number than 65? If they want to they have over 800 pilots to choose from and countless support staff.
2) As previously touted on this website, would
VB not be ripe for a takeover? It has large domestic market share, bottoming share price, reasonably low cost basing and now has approval to conduct operations on the lucrative Pacific run. I know money isn't exactly in abundance at the moment, especially amongst Airlines but surely this has to be considered.
I too have a vested interest in
VB's success but I'm not going to wait forever.........