...surely EK will eventually reach the point where it is more cost-effective to allow crews to be based in their home countries?
I know of at least two pilots who have left EK in the last 12 months who told HR that they would be happy to stay if they could be given a roster that would allow them to get home for a week every month - something
far short of basing.
(I was one of them.
)
Answer? "We'll pass it on." Translation: Too hard-la.
Just as they did with the decision to accept female expat pilots, they'll do it eventually, but (as with the female pilots), only when they're dragged screaming into accepting it because they simply have to. But when it comes, it won't be to save money, for the cost savings argument doesn't hold water, as the vast majority of the costs of having crews based in DXB aren't really costs at all - they're really just money being passed from one pocket of someone's dish dash to another.