Chief Brody,
very true. I guess it'll come down to how quickly they need people. The last recruitment drive was far more substantial that what is being discussed at the moment and I think LH and SH training department coped fine then. Keep in mind that last time most of the new entrants to SH were SSPs, who required the full type rating and 40 sectors with a TC before being released. I would imagine that DEPs with at least 500hrs (whether type rated or not) would place considerably less burden on the training department than SSPs did.
So basically what I'm saying is based on current recruitment plans (or even a bit of an increase on what's planned) I think (and hope!) that the training depts will be able to cope while sticking to the agreement mentioned.
That said, should the company find itself in a situation where they need to recruit DEPs LH ahead of internal candidates then I'm sure BALPA will be reasonably flexible. Not something I relish the thought of though!
I hope the conversation I overheard amongst top(ish) management was incorrect - but it did touch have within it the phrase "you cant please all the people all the time"
Just to be clear, was this specifically in relation to taking LH DEPs ahead of existing SH pilots?
Cheers