I wonder if this is a bit of a rash and desperate decision for which JAL is going to end up with a long term regret. They have had a large amount of foreign pilots, many Americans amongst them, for quite some time now.

At some point, possibly in the not too distant future, I would think they'd want more hulls in the air again. For that matter, cancelling all the contracts accounts for a large part of their pilot force. SQ is also getting rid of contractors, but not to such a degree, and so far my friends who have started there in the last six months are holding on to their jobs.

Quite simply, good pilots go to good contracts, as is the opposite true. Perhaps just another in a long line of bad decisions made by JAL over the past number of years. They must, at some point, look across the ramp at their once junior competition and winder how they do it.