To make a decent skipper on the EK fleets, imho you need both experiences, LH and SH.
A local who has started on a T7 and after 6000 hours passed his upgrade is basically as inadequate as a DEC who has 10000 hours but only SH experience.
It is not a coincidence that the most respected legacy carriers mainly build their career model around SH then LH experience for FOs, then upgrade on SH with transition to LH later.
The whole reason is that you build up experience with cycles, and LH does not provide enough in reasonable time. In addition you need experience of the specific leadership and management problems (not flying skills) that arise on LH, they are different.
Lack of either makes a less suitable skipper and with the big mouthed pretention of being among the best carriers, EK would be well advised to follow suit.
Last edited by glofish; 18th Jul 2012 at 08:42.