How strange than in less than seven years, the aviation world (except the US) has changed from requiring experienced F/Os to the exact opposite.
True!
After getting rid of the flight engineer in the -80's and -90's, slowly the low-cost companies are moving to a 1 1/2 man cockpit: one experienced captain who is babysitting a 200 hour MPL co-pilot/apprentice keeping the right seat warm whilst getting paid peanuts.
And hey, it appears to be working! Just micromanage all SOP's, tell them to follow the magenta line, combine that with modern and reliable technology which only requires you to push a few buttons and: presto, one person has been
fully removed from the pay roll.
The next step, in 5-10 years or so when the first generation of MPL pilots will reach command suitability, will be to attack the T&C's of captains and to have
two cheap persons babysitting the aircraft, making sure it stays on the magenta line and to serve as the fall guys if it doesn't. Assuming the current rate of training will continue and the large number of naive wannabe's out there getting lured into the business with glossy brochures, future pilots will be so cheap that it will no longer be worthwhile to replace pilots with computers.
Think I'm too negative? Well, who would have thought 7 years ago that 200 hour MPL button pushers would bypass 5-6000 jet hour First Officers...?
