Originally Posted by
ITSALLGOOD
According to a senior network manager they are new 332 and 321s. WBs are 100% growth for SEA and LAX to Asia. 321s are roughly 50/50 growth and replacement. Caveat...he did not say the deal was done, just very close to done (this was a few days back so may be inked by now).
He also stated mainline will grow by nearly 130 jets by the end of 2017 based on current plans. That is net gain after subtracting planned retirements.
Speaking of retirements, and if that really is a net gain, that's 1500-2000 additional pilots, over and above the pilot retirements and added pilots to staff the training bubble. Since most or all of 2013 won't see any pilot hiring, and certainlly no hired pilots hitting the line, all of that will have to take place between 2014 and 2017. 2014 is, so far, rumored to contain hiring but only part of the year and numbers that aren't phenominal. So 2015-2017 will have to be 1000+ pilot years in order to fully cover something like this.
If that were true, I'd think they'd be anxious to prime the pump a little bit right now. At least getting the process spooled up and a couple hundred pilots processed through to the line even if it meant carrying a small low single digit surplus for a little while (and based on many categories already in May, it there is a surplus its being pretty artfully concealed).