pilotchute
Local recruitment of cadets from Hong Kong will more than satisfy the need for SO’s for the foreseeable future. There are about 50 long haul flights a day that are potentially affected by the new “AFTL’s”. A reduction of 25% of the crewing requirement on these flights will have an effect on SO recruitment as evidenced by the fact the TT recruitment stream hasn’t been restarted.
The next step in this jigsaw puzzle is the renaming of SO’s as Cruise FO’s. Once the HKCAD changes the requirement for Base Training (Circuits with touch & go landings) in the real aircraft rather than in a sim, SO’s will become Cruise FO’s and meet the requirements for 3 man long range ops. Cruise FO’s will have the same restrictions as SO’s, i.e. no take-offs or landing and only allowed in the seat above FL200, oh and I nearly forgot, the same pay as an SO or if the cynical side of me is right, probably less.