A few facts here. It is voluntary redundancy. It is not just the top 500 that it is available to - merely that they will be the first to get the letter - that will not preclude any pilot without a letter from applying or being accepted for the scheme. The cost of recruitment is a red herring, the total cost of those in the pool is less than that being offered to one PP24 person to go. Deliveries of new Airbus aircraft have already been accounted for and will not alter pilot numbers. As cost savings achieved by this scheme will only cover the fiscal years 0910 and 1011 there will be no recruitment until Apr 2011 at the earliest - else the costs will have to be recovered elsewhere. Those are facts.
2x767 and 3x747 likely to be parked up this winter or maybe earlier.
Sadly this does not look good for those swimming at the moment - but it may well be prudent to keep extending the time for those in the pool as when BA needs pilots it will need them suddenly - that is the nature of airline recruitment.
Good luck to all swimmers, take the advice about taking any job in aviation.