Originally Posted by
flyingreasemnky
Not trying to get involved in the fray but the number of flights doesn't matter. What matters is the amount of seats. Frequency is going away for fewer flights with more seats. 8 flights a day in a 145 can easily be replaced by 5 175/900's. So that means fewer pilots overall needed. Hell, you throw in 1 MD-80/A320 flight and you can decrease the number of flights by 2.
Once the 50 seaters and smaller are gone there will be fewer pilots needed to move the same amount of passengers. So really they would only need to be able to replace 1400 flights with 921 (using 50 seats as an average). With Skywest/Expressjet and Air Wisconsin having a great deal of 50 seaters that are going to be exchanged for fewer 175/900's there will be plenty of pilots available to fly those flights. Not to mention the overlap that you will see go away as hubs are shrinked or shutdown.
Will the regional replace the number of pilots leaving with new hires? I hear RAH hasn't been able to grow their SL much over 100 number while hiring hundreds and that's in 2013, the hiring in 2014 is projected to increase by 200% to 300%. There is a reason why 300 or so 50 seaters will be parked over the next 2 years. The regionals might be able to hire about 25% of the pilots leaving out the door.