Thomas Coupling and NRDK.
Thank you for your explanations. It does seem though that through the system you describe, the CAA are trusting that the AOC holder will never fall victim to any commercial pressure to keep the service fully manned.
Thomas Coupling
The CAA...are technical (engineering inspectors) and operational (pilots/crewmen) inspectors.
It doesn't mean they have to fly with anyone in fact. The company TRE's do this.
Previous posters have suggested that the CAA conduct flying audits to ensure full operational capability is being maintained. Your first point here suggests that this is done by both pilots and crewmen in the CAA's employ. Yet other posts, including the second one shown above, suggest that this is devolved to company TREs.
So is it the CAA or TREs that conduct the capability checks? And how can TREs check the performance of the aircrewmen?