Used to be....
Any F/O who joins now can expect to have around 400 pilots in front of him waiting for the upgrade, so nothing below 5 to 7 years now even with new aircrafts coming in 2012, won't change much and EY still hires DEC's....
Package is still quite good on both sides.
Talking about SMBZ, european line maintenance and engineers have refused to live there and moved to Dubai. just facts.
Hear lots of pilots live there and seem to be happy.