If the mergers go ahead BA will have more seats to fill but most of them will already have a warm bum on them. CFE/Brymon/BRAL are currently fully staffed and unless BA take the planes but not the pilots nothing will change. If BA do take the planes but not the pilots the job market will be flooded with well qualified people looking for work. It's true that in the long run BA would need more CEPs and DEPs because it would have more planes, however this is not much consolation to the self funded looking for their first break. Whatever happens in the future if the mergers go ahead it will, almost certainly, make getting that first job difficult for the self funded.