Its all bol***s , Etihad are going to need a whole pile of drivers very soon , and the only time they are going to be fussy is with low-time peeps. I may have to eat my hat eventually , but I believe that EY are going to be sensible and take on shorthaul experienced guys to be longhaul captains and f/os . Line training is the key .
Any mention of the most useless phrase in aviation ie 'Widebody experience' will become redundant . Emirates do not use it , and BA have NEVER used it .
Any airline manager worth his salt knows that flying widebodies is easy , the tough jobs are the shorthaul routes , anybody who thinks flying 500 pax is more demanding than flying 5 pax is deluded.
EY will shortly become a very good recruiter - I believe thay even have a chequebook for bonds that need seeing to. That is very smart in the current market.