Text Books
dittidano,
Lets add "text books" to the list of reasons to cry of a pilot hiring boom. Besides what makes you think that even a large lay off of pilots would bring management to the negotiating table? There are currently more unemployed or underemployed airline pilots out there than there are working major airline pilots left. Half of all those pilots could retire next month and they just might make it to the bottom of the furlough list. If I were you I would take out your calculator and add up the numbers of pilots at each of the major airlines and see exactly how many there are. I think the number is around 55-65 thousand current and working major airline pilots (DAL UAL AA USA AS SWA). The US military alone is training over 11,000 new pilots every year and the civilian market is producing over 25,000 new commercial pilots every year. If the average airline pilot has a 30 year career then we would have an average of 2200 retirements every year for a potential of 36,000 trained and educated new professional pilots, that puts the odds at 16 to 1. Besides, the majors are shrinking while the LCC's are growing. I don't think there will be much of a blip on the radar for even the most optimistic view on retirements.
Skyhigh