No need to be dumbfounded, it's the BA way.
How does an airline go from hiring a trickle of pilots each year to over 300 without expansion?
Quite easily. "They" have wanted to run the op with minimum recruitment for a long time...think bonuses....
However:
1. There are now genuine signs of a forthcoming retirement bulge....
2. IMHO "they" were critically under manned last year, which "they" just got away with, by the skin of "their" teeth, by driving through changes to the rostering system. Having used that remedy once "they" can't do it again....
As SinBin has said, at last management are now publicly saying they need more pilots.
In the meantime it's going to be an interesting few months with an increasing number of folks already hitting the 900 hour bell early in the summer season.