EK seniority
I was involved with EK at the beginning and being a start up airline we employed direct entry captains. A year or so after the start the non flying management still wanted to bring in direct entry captains which resulted in a couple of first officers jumping ship on a night stop, leaving the aircraft stranded.
The management then allowed the initiation of a seniority list - my personal view is that the seniority list has kept the standards and continuity that we expect from airlines such as EK (nobody in high places can bring a friend - everybody has to jump through the same loops). Caste an eye at some of the other airlines in that region!!
It will be a sad and significant day if that seniority list is broken.