So its 90 hr flexi lines or another round of redundancies. What's your pick?"
They won't be falling for the flexi line bluff again! The "savings" from the last when straight into Dixon's pocket - a direct wealth transfer. This forces the company to make a very unpalatable choice. Redundancies would be a
PR nightmare - it would validate everything the mainline pilots have been saying.
With respect to the part-timers, there are several advantages. From a straight financial perspective, they are probably making a quite a few dollars from the endorsement (GST rebate, + $10,000 over the Alteon list price).
Then there's the over-supply. It is in managements interests to flood the market with FO's, increase supply, drive down the price. Observing the European experience this exactly what has occurred.
They could then offer a crewing services to client airlines (specifically allowed in the contract) - with experienced pilots, and skim a nice little profit, money for jam.
Given the low base pay, I can see every incentive for jetstar to operate as a pilot training machine, churning out as many fools as they can get through the door. It works for them in so many ways, giving them a large pool of hungry pilots.