My estimates may be out regarding variable costs of sim training, but not by much: they are currently training extra trainers at great cost for the expected rush. Also, simulator time is costed internally...nothing is for free. And they will likely have to cancel many commercial slots from which they would otherwise generate revenue. Also, fixed costs have to be assigned somewhere-they do not exist in a vacuum, so this training needs to be costed there as well.
The 'cost' of a training course is circa $50K per pilot. That includes the sim, the instructor, the ground course, the ongoing cost of training and maintaining the instructor, the ongoing cost of maintaining the sim, etc. It's probably a bit less than that if an appropriate pairing has been arranged. The system is at capacity and has been for quite some time so it's not like they're missing commercial revenue given that they haven't on sold much A330 time for at least 12 months. Yes they needed more trainers on the A330.....to meet the required demand of expansion.
It doesn't include pilot pay of those undergoing the training but they're not unproductive for the entire time. In terms of total costs, they're paying those pilots anyway whether training or not.
So perhaps you're right austral and the saving is greater but you're forgetting that they still need more A330 drivers anyway so the trickle down may not be as great and they're paying 'someone' to train anyway. It's just someone being demoted rather than someone being promoted.