Problem is that as far as the company is concerned overall BA is not short of pilots and is planning to move bodies from other "in surplus" fleets onto the bus to cover the shortfall. This is currently causing a certain amount of heated debate in another place and suggests to me that despite our wishes the company is not about to rush out and hire DEPs.
Current Airbus manning issues aside there's a lot going on at the moment that could have an impact on manning next year, e.g. Possible changes to Bid line (our scheduling agreement) and there's still much work to be done on the impact of the EASA FTLs so I'm not sure anyone in BA management is really in a position at the moment to predict if/when they are going to allowed to recruit. The business case has to be approved by IAG and there's no sign of that happening at the moment. What anybody heard at a management briefing session at, say, a ground training day might be wishful thinking by a BA manager.......
All that said there's obviously no harm in being prepared and it would be nice to see BA back in the market for DEPs so fingers crossed.