Originally Posted by
aa73
If I can inject a little optimism amongst all of this negativity, it's to tell you all that AA has always significantly understated its hiring #s in the past. Case in point, when they announced hiring back in '97, it was an unspectacular smallish number to begin with. They eventually ended up hiring almost 1500 pilots over the course of 3 years... WELL above what they'd ever planned or announced.
Today will be no different. Barring another major catastrophe, I'm casting my lot with a number way higher than 1500 over 5 years.... closer to 2500-3000, strictly based on retirements, new FAA duty regs, and forecast growth.
Back to the little black cloud...
Retirement numbers are very small for the next 5 years, they've been widely exaggerated around here but guys who've flowed over have showed people in the crew room the numbers. Something like 63 next year increasing over the next 5 but doesn't hit anything significant til 5+. Alot of those projected hiring numbers are based off expansion, which is speculation.