There would be little cost savings in salary as pilots are already approaching salaries that are near national averages in many countries.
I could be wrong but I doubt that even with LCC's but show me some figures.
I don't think anyone is saying that you would get rid of pilots completely but it is not beyond suggestion that they could have just one pilot there as Tbar said a systems analysts for those odd and rare occasions.
I doubt framer is right and the savings including super,hols,accommodation,sick leave amount to a considerable amount.....
I don't remember the exact amount but we were told that to reduce the crew by one flight attendant saved the company millions across the fleet.So you can imagine how much they would save by reducing the tech crew ranks by one per aircraft...