No one here is surprised one bit by this news.
The airline's management have made a perfectly rational decision.
Yes it's a disgrace and my initial reaction is that the senior pilots should take a stand, but on seconds don't do it, you'll get ripped apart. Why?
- these cadets have willingly chosen this option, and recognised the risk that on signing up for £70k, it's not a guaranteed job.
- if this goes to a full strike and the EZY press office get stuck in, there will be pictures of cadets standing outside mummy and daddy's big house talking of their hardship versus hard-up family deprived of their only ever holiday =
PR disaster. Then management can really get stuck in.
- But above all, the cadets will keep coming and filling places so you're fighting a loosing battle. The TR could be £35k/£45k, people would still pay. It's a complete mess, but you can't loose sight of the fact that people have willingly choosen to take on these huge amounts of debt with no guarantees and therefore spun the dice (and we effectively now have risk takers in/wanting to be in the flight deck- but that's another topic).