Callsign Kilo
You sometimes speak sense on these boards, but on this occasion you really are way wide of the mark and have no idea what you are going on about.
The 2011 joiners where all previously type rated (most where ex Midland anyway after the redundancies and where just coming back from the dessert.....) apart from 3. Midland recruited and paid for their A320 rating, some of them had already got quite a few hours jet experience but where Boeing rated rather than Airbus.
The more recent recruitment drive was to bring up the F/O numbers because Midland was extremely short of them. Ironically enough, some had left to join BA in BA's recruitment drive. The very few who actually joined had all been through a full selection process and where already A320 rated. They came from a number of different airlines. The Regional and Baby guys did object to this so the recruitment was stopped. The only effect this had was to increase the number of hours that current F/O's where flying, so really, it just meant that they worked harder and got paid more money.
This whole business of Pay 2 Fly people walking into a job at T5 (and "bypassing" The Rivers
) simply isn't true.
Them's the facts, whether you like them or not.
(Don't let it ruin a good story though..... eh?
)