That's largely correct - that's the order of which people should be taken back. As for those made redundant - compulsarily or voluntarily - a 'reasonable' period of time is required to give them priority over others to be re-employed and UK law assumes this to be two years in most cases. And you can bet that VS will be sticking to the law - they had to be reminded of what the law requires the last time!
The short notice aquisition of those five Alitalia 744s actually precipitated VS's troubles prior to 9/11 - so when the market looked bleak after the twin towers came down, they were forced into drastic action.
And the recall happened very quickly when things picked up in 2003. In fact, the first course of new joiners started the day after I left on voluntary redundancy. And they were very suprised how many didn't want to come back - the gloss on the VS machine had gone dull by then You would think that after the way the company got caught out previously, they would have been a bit more cautious this time. But apparently not!