So much mis-information, arcdu, the company would not win given the scenario you mention, why would they? There is no such thing in the airline industry or at least in flybe, where a seat is made redundant, what nonsense.
As has already been stated, everyone knows when you sign up that your career will be ruled by seniority, so when it comes to cuts, it has to be seniority, age discrimination would not be an issue either because there is no age discrimination in employment in the first place, not all new starts are 21 yrs of age!
Make older folks redundant and there certainly would be grounds for legal action and the company would lose, they know this and would rather pay out than use that paltry amount to retrain and/or offer part time contracts.
The other point is is, the pools which will be formed, will be mainly LIFO, so again that must be acceptable to the companies legal peeps.
It's a mess, but the company will blink first, Balpa are f'ing useless and the CC even worse but they will revel in the hero worship.
