Understood Zippy,
Just in case you thought otherwise, my "BS" remark wasn't aimed at you. Anyway, as you pointed out, after a year or so of flying around you get a new perspective on the industry (positive and negative), so I think we're heading to the same picknik area, just by different tracks.
I would be absolutely delighted to eat my own hat if BA really do take on 400 new pilot recruits in 2011
Interesting one this, and good example of the obfuscation on offer in this thread. These quotes cover the "400" issue in chronological order:
Q.What are you hearing from the market in terms of employment, who's hiring, who's looking to begin hiring in the next 2 years etc..?
A. BA we think are looking to begin hiring around April 2011. But not on any major volume.
Q. Employment?
A. BA won't be hiring until 2011, but then they will need 400 pilots
To expand on this a bit...
Charlie Maunder from BA met with CTC cadets last Friday.
He said that BA were not anticipating any hiring until around April 2011. When asked how many pilots they were likely to need, he said something along the lines of: The need could start off as just a trickle of pilots, going up to around 400 pilots a year if/when recruitment gets going.
He did point out a couple of times that the subject of recruitment was more of an 'if' then a 'when' and that they were in a struggle for survival.
See the problem with this thread?