I've just had a chat from a very well placed bloke involved in the recruitment process.
He's been told QF will be recruiting 10 pilots a month for the foreseeable future. The 170 that has been bandied about is a very conservative stab in the dark from the very early stages after the 789 purchase was a very rough estimate of how many we'll need, but it's apparent this will be nowhere near enough.
The guy I spoke with expects the first external applicants to be starting courses in April/May next year which would mean recruitment processes starting in November.
Rumour has it though that QLink and JQ are so short already they are very reluctant to release those that have been successful in the QF recruitment process. I suspect there may be some deal done to keep these guys doing what they're doing until they can be released to QF, ghost seniority numbers have been mentioned by one manager recently.
The lesson to learn here is that there is obviously commercial realities that may come in to play here. Keeping those successful candidates in the regionals until they can be released without it affecting their operations. NO SUCH REASONS EXIST FOR EMBARGOING GUYS FROM TIGER OR VIRGIN. If QF need them, they'll take them. Cutting the throat of your competitor at the same time will just be a fortunate byproduct of that process.