Originally Posted by neville_nobody
I'd be betting there will be interest from the RAAF with many people already rated and they have the low level training and experience.
Already done and dusted, ages ago, Neville.
Cobham managers secretly canvassed some of the ex-RAAF 604 drivers now working on the B717 in the first half of 2015. Result: It wasn't enough flying and it wasn't enough money.
The long and the short of it is -- Cobham won the $640 million contract first (waxing lyrical to all, including the Tenderer, about the superior skill set and experience of their existing DHC-8 workforce) and then went hunting to see who would fly the missions, at the lowest possible cost, for the sole purpose of maximising profit for Cobham, the income being more or less a fixed price, $640m.
Cobham didn't have any luck with the RAAFies, they expected resistance from the (largely AFAP) existing Surveillance/SAR pilots, so they kept looking till they found the softest touch. Hence the greenfield sweetheart deal with the TWU.