Tomkins
From where did you pull the figure of 0.0001 % of the population only being able to become flight crew ,I would have to rubbish this.
Ok maybe overstated to make a point but BA used to receive 10,000 applicants for about 100 ab-initio flight crew training places annually. Given these 10,000 by virtue of the academic entrance requirements are already in the top 10% academically I think you will find my figures are not to far from reality.
It is the reason WW has already done the deal with the pilots, he does not have the same options their with being able to train up volunteers to do the job in 21 days. You simply cannot train someone from the office to fly a 747 in 21 days whereas you can probably expect to produce pretty acceptable cc in the same time from almost the whole of the Non flying BA community.
Your comments about planes being mostly flown by computers is amusing and shows much ignorance as to the role of the flight crew but also re-inforces the point about where the cc sit in the order of safety criticality on the aircraft. The fact that you are ranking the role of the cc along with the flight crew is just another illustration of the unrealistic roots of this dispute.
If I learnt that I was about to get on a flight with an incompetent flight crew then I would very likely refuse to board - on the other hand I would not take the same action on learning that the cc are incompetent as it simply does not have the same impact.
My comments are not aimed at the intelligence of cc it is simply a fact of life that the laws of supply and demand are not in your/their favour.
It sounds like any future IA will have an ever decreasing impact on the BA schedule largely because of the reasons outlined above. I am sure WW is quietly thinking "bring it on" which will allow him to once and for all treat this cancer within his organisation.