Hi CC
I think the company will recruit externally in the next few years – but – this is my opinion only.
We are just about to repromote some of the demoted Captains from a year or so ago, plus there are some guys leaving for BA and a couple to VS. In addition, there should be some expansion at the back end of this year/start of 2012 with the arrival of three extra A321s.
I know we still have some guys that were made redundant and headed out to the ME waiting to come back before any external recruitment begins. Any big recruitment will be driven by expansion of the long haul fleet.
In terms of time to command, as you say, an entirely moveable feast. I think the figure at the moment is around 12 years. The contraction in the company size in the last few years, plus the change in retirement age has contributed to this.
I am a Mixed Fleet pilot, so I do a period of reserve (standby) three times a year. Each of these used to be of duration 12 – 14 days I think. The A320 fleet do on average a standby block of five days duration every roster period, so probably end up with about the same amount of standby. Typical Roster:
Day 1 OFF
Day 2 OFF
Day 3-8 LHR-IST-DXB-IST-LHR (A330 Turkish Wet Lease trip)
Day 9 OFF
Day 10 OFF
Day 11 OFF
Day 12 LHR-MXP-LHR
Day 13 LHR-DUB-LHR-DUB-LHR
Day 14 OFF
Day 15 OFF
Day 16-20 LHR-BEY-LHR (Midhaul trip)
Day 21 OFF
Day 22 OFF
Day 23 OFF
Day 24-27 LHR-RUH-LHR (A330 trip)
Day 28 OFF
Lex