CB.
The AOA are not exactly objective though, are they. They are, by design, biased and one-sided. As well they should be. I have to say that their view on this more extreme than mine.
QF EK et al are snapping up folks left right and centre, because they are expanding at a comical, unsustainable rate. No other reason. Cx are not. They are conservative by comparison.
If they ever run short, and they've exhausted the qualified SO pool, and it looks like in the mid-term, they might, they will have a short spree of hiring FOs. Will they be on DEFO terms? Who knows. Not unless they supply says they have to be.
Either way, DE status and benefits are, in the long term, on their way out of CX. That's not defeatist, you prat, that's realistic. Just like A-scale, B will die. Just like the millionaire pilots.
Markets always swing to sustainability. It's not magic doing it, and it's not management, it's market elasticity.
You tell my why John Slosar would continue to pay over the odds for a huge percentage of his overheads? What the hell would anyone 'wasting money' tell shareholders?
A-scale existed, because that was the going rate to get someone suitably trained to move to HK. That was no longer needed. B scale was needed, because that was the going rate to get someone suitably trained to move to Hong Kong. That is no longer needed. It may be in the interim, but it isn't now.
Now, icadet package is what is needed. I'm sure now you'll cast a million aspersions on their training, something you know nothing about. Just rest assured that these guys come out of Adelaide knowing a ****e-sight more about their craft than your typical US major pilot. They may not have the experience, they'll get that here. They'll have some of the worlds best trainers training them, and some of the most robust SOPs and practices anywhere to be found.
That, in my view, is worth more in a jumbo, than your experience as an air taxi pilot in Western Australia.