Of course cost comes into it. Whoever suggested it doesn’t?
In today’s environment only those airlines that are constantly looking for innovative ways to cut costs without compromising on safety are going to survive.
Over the decades, crew numbers in the flight deck have been reducing and flight safety has been improving. Statistically flying is safer now than it has ever been and the majority of aircraft in the skies have only two pilots on board. Flight engineers, like navigators before them, will never buy into this argument. Who can blame them?
An aircraft is only as safe as its crew. Proper selection, training, and the continued exercising of good judgement, prioritisation and flight deck management are to me the fundamentals of flight safety, not the number of people in the flight deck.
Incidentally, I believe Atlantic do have a third person on board a lot of the time?