I think you're both making the unwarranted assumption that legacy carriers are the only bastion of competence. By that measure, you also have to assume that every new hire at the legacy carriers is incompetent, since they don't yet have the benefit of the legacy training program! Airline training is for the purpose of aircraft and company SOP familiarization. It doesn't impart "competence", which is a quality earned through many years of experience. Even the early "non-legacy" pilots at carriers like JetBlue had many, many years of transport aircraft flying. They just weren't lucky enough to stay with the same carrier for their whole career and were forced to drift. That doesn't make their experience any less valuable than a two-year furloughee's. In fact, who would you rather hire if you were starting an airline?
That said, the point that JetBlue, Airtran, etc. are being increasingly populated with other airline's pilots is well-taken. I'm sure they're very welcome. Still, it would probably be best for all concerned to continue to hire from all the traditional sources: corporate, regional, military, cargo, etc. in addition to legacy carrier furloughees.
