It is interesting that people resort to personal attacks because someone might have a different viewpoint.
Interesting so many QF pilots such as Keg for years belittled J* pilots for being on "Sh*t Money" - really quite a put down.
So of all the routes that the 330 flies overseas, to date we have actually only identified one route that "apparently" requires an SO, Shanghai, well I actually thought a lot of other airlines (including QF on the 767) flew this router two pilot.
Why is it that Jetstar flies to BKK two pilot , QF always takes along a SO. Really plenty here trying to spin the whole thing "complex legal procedures , reverse inverse matrix rule can only be applied".
Sure thing - lets face it you don't actually need SO on the A330 on any routes that it flies (Hong Kong, Manila, Sing etc)
Understand from the QF32 book the guys on the A380 had been doing little over two hundred hours a year , for the two or three years prior to the accident. Happy days $300K a year for the equivalent of one run to Hong Kong every fortnight.
I guess it could only be subsidized by other parts of the Qantas group for so long.