Pups, I wasn't 'defending' the scheme! I was making two points: One, that IFALPA's concern may be valid in the wider world but that there was no reason to have any particular safety concern about the Bond/Astraeus scheme principally because it uses a full airline-quality selection procedure. Industry comment about the product of this scheme is generally complementary, and airline training in the UK is generally of very high quality indeed. My second point was that it's not as easy as it may appear to determine the effect on the airline's finances of running such a scheme; it may reduce costs, it may not - neither of us can tell from our situation.
Scroggs