The rumour mill does seem to be leaning towards DE Captains being the only way of crewing the 300's, if indeed they come. Pilots however are not the only problem. How do we crew the back when we are operating 500 cabin crew short at the moment. What effect on CCQ'ing would adding a 4th variant have (330-200, 340-300, 340-500 and 340-600). Also as Warlock said, they would need quite a bit of work to get into EK spec. They need F/O's as well. Were are we going to park them, when Dubai is struggling for gates as it is. etc etc.
There is a lot more to it than than just the question of who will sit in the left hand seat. Just to stick my bit in though, I think Direct Entry Captains would potentially be a problem. We have been hiring guys as F/O's for a while now who would easily qualify for a Direct Entry position. What do we do with them?
Touchy subject.