Originally Posted by
sailingfun
You can also simply look at how many pilots SWA has and how many Delta uses on domestic narrow bodies. I saw the numbers a few years ago. If I recall Delta was using about 13 pilots per airframe. SW around 11.
Originally Posted by
sailingfun
You guys can double check my math, but according to airlinepilotcentral SWA currently has 6,104 pilots. I do not believe that counts AirTran. If it does, my bad, but based on 568 SWA birds and 6,104 piltos they have an average of 10.75 pilots per plane. Close to the 11 you mention Sailing.
However, looking at the 22 D2 for Nov 2012, we will have 1,625 pilots on the MD88/90. If you go on the 152 fleet number then we average 10.69 pilots per airplane but if you add in the 13 incoming MD90s then the number is 9.85 pilots per plane.
IF those numbers are right, then we are staffing the MD88 with fewer pilots than SWA staffs the 737.