"Airlines are interested in Captains, not FO's" - Exactly, this is the real demand today, Captains, that's where the problem is today, and what bears truth in the expression of great demand, however most the FTO's fail to mention this during their recruitment sales.
"superflanker" - Regarding points of airplanes with 1 pilot, if we look how aviation has developed the last 20 - 30 years, this does seem inevitable unfortunately.
Sure the cost initially would be big for companies, however considering how much they would save on crew salaries, training hotels etc., it would be billions, not millions. The military already have airplanes without pilots, and I could imagine with future developments in technology it would be fairly easy to have 1 pilot on the ground, being able to log into and remotely control an aircraft if required. The pilot on the ground would probably be "co-pilot / backup pilot" for up to 20 - 30 aircraft, in case of emergency / non normal situations.
So it would still be humans controlling the aircraft, just that the second human / pilot, will be on the ground, being able to take control of X amount of aircrafts if required.
The technology to fly these aircraft remotely from the ground already exists today.
Training pilots would not be an issue, they would be on the line for a certain period of sectors, before they would be released.
I could also see an advancement on todays CDPLC technology, where ATC will via datalink be able to control the aicraft 100%, by sending messages that would automatically control the aircraft without crews intervention.
All this might sound far fetched for many today, but I think it's highly plausible that this will be the future of aviation within the next 20 - 30 years. I will hopefully be well retired before it happens, but I do believe it will eventually happen at some stage.
The savings on money is to big, also it will resolve the issue with not enough Captains, it will resolve many crewing issues that exist today, that causes cancellations due to lack of crew etc., and most cancellations I have seen if it's been due to lack of crew, have been due to lack of Captains, no FO's.
It will reduce training costs etc. A company with 500 FO's, would save at least 40.000.000, if not more, that is a significant number. (That would be an airline with around 80 - 100 aircraft)