The airline is currently interviewing and potentially employing a small number of pilots to fill B742 and A340 positions. War in the Middle East will undoubtedly affect this, but this process was embarked upon when war was seen as a lot less likely than it is now.
The letter that Pennine Boy refers to is an effort by the company, prompted by the Crew Committee, to have data on file about the approximate numbers of pilots who may be prepared to accept part time working, or unpaid leave, in the event that the company should ever again be faced with large-scale and rapid manning reductions in response to external events, as happened after 9/11. It is in response to criticisms by our pilot community of the airline's handling of that period that this initiative has been taken - and the upcoming war is used as an example of the kind of event that could precipitate this. The idea is that the balance of redundancies and other options could be far better and more accurately predicted than it was last time. No more, no less.
Scroggs