Hi!
ricfly744: EK does not have any -400s. The one's you see that are painted "Emirates SkyCargo" are Atlas planes, operated by Atlas on lease to EK.
EK used to hire DECs, but don't now. They have lots of FOs that are qualified for Capt upgrade, ESPECIALLY if they change the requirements back to what they used to be.
It IS hard to pull a bunch of FOs offline to upgrade them when they are all on 92 hour block schedules, with no one available to fly reserve in their place.
EK's manning situation will get worse month by month for the foreseeable future, in my opinion.
cliff
NBO