The talk regading increased opportunities for BA mainline, therefore is negated as the additional slots in net terms are not an increase (covered by the exisiting workforce, ie BMI)
You are correct if IAG's intention were to continue flying shorthaul with those slots. WW has stated that the slots, however would be used for much needed longhaul expansion. I refer you to my previous post and apologise if I've got the numbers wrong, but if WW was to go ahead & convert all of those slots to Longhaul, the expansion opportunities would be significant.
Also bear in mind that bmi are bringing across approx. 20% of the number of slots that BA owns with a workforce that constitutes a mere 10% of the BA one, & although it is more concentrated in the shorthaul area, I would imagine a significant number of senior BA SH pilots would see opportunities become available in the short to medium term as a result of the slot portfolio benefitting from such a rapid increase in size.
The proposed opportunities are also a smoke screen as BMI has not had any significant recruitment for the last 7-10 years and as such SFO/FO in the acquiring company, BA will therefore find themselves several hundred places further down the seniority list
Several hundred? There's only about 320 pilots in bmi; if you're talking command opportunities then divide that number by 2. When bmi merged with BMED there were a handful of guys who lost about 100 places on the seniority list, that's all- and BMED constituted an airline about
A THIRD of the size of bmi.
So:
20% slots vs. 10% pilots - straightaway the "impact" is halved.
Current use for large No. of slots = shorthaul - with longhaul use the "impact" will be more than halved again.
Whilst it is very easy to get drawn in to positions of opposition when talking of mergers,etc. I think in the long term a united front has to be far preferable.