250+ a year for 4 years seems optimistic though!
Here's part of the reason recruitment will go up significantly:
By sheer coincidence I was going through some files at home yesterday and came across the letter the company sent in 2006 detailing changes to compulsory retirement ages for pilots. The ability to work on as a pilot at BA to age 65 took place 1st Oct 2006..
I'll let you all do the maths, but would add that when demography meant retirements picked up just prior to the 2006 change the status lists on Bidpacks made interesting reading (i.e highly fluid).