I fully admit to having very little knowledge of the operating costs we are talking about here - I just get paid to fly the things and have never taken a close interest in the finer financial details. But given all the fixed costs of salaries, bases, spares holdings, etc - does training hours really form a significant proportion of the overall costs?
How much would (for example) a 100% increase in the proposed 50hr training figure affect the overall cost - 1%, 5%, 10% ?? I have no idea but would be interesting to know.