When the growth stops, then musical chairs stops and the 'fast trick to command' also stops. That is what you need to factor in to your plans. This is definitely not the place to get stuck in the right seat.
The "Fast Track to Command" will never stop. One of FR's great and many failings is their total inability to plan Crewing levels. They are either totally short (i.e the unpaid leave in STN left them devoid of Captains) or massively overcrewed (i.e First Officers for the last two years - and yet they just keep on coming). I know we are buying more planes etc, but we are not expanding the operation to incorporate these planes into the schedule (DUB cuts, STN cuts, LPL cuts etc etc) therefore meaning we are heading into an even worse situation with being saturated with F/O's. We can all see it, we have the conversation every day in the crew room. Back to the Command issue though, regardless of needs the Fast Track to the Left will never slow cos they don't have the foresight or planning ability to work out who needs to be where and how many are needed. That goes for Capt's and F/O's.