Originally Posted by
ImTumbleweed
Sailing,
Please site your source for the information you posted. Where did you get those numbers.
And do those numbers include guys who aren't actively flying (Mil leave, disability, ect).
Links to the source would be best, thanks.
Warning - Public Math and crude estimates follow: 
The Contract 2015, Delta Pilots Contract history that we received lists the following for Block Hours flown:
DAL in 2000 - 2,269,404 Block hours flown. *
NW in 2000 - 1,487,463 Block hours flown. **
Using 10,000 Pilots at DAL you get about 227 hours per Pilot.
Using 7000 Pilots at NW you get about 212 hours per Pilot.
You can multiply these numbers by 2 and get
454 and
424 average block time respectively in 2000.
DAL combined in 2012 flew 2,642,225 Block hours.
Using 11,500 Pilots you get about 230 block hours per Pilot.
Multiplying by 2 you get
460 average block time per Pilot.
Note - I am estimating the number of total pilots for each of these snapshots. 10,000 was pretty much dead on for DAL in 2000, and 11,500 is close to what we had in 2012.
7000 for NW in 2000 was a total guess.
If anyone has more accurate numbers they can recalculate more accurate numbers.
You can tweak these numbers any way you like - I am not taking into account any MIL leaves, Sick, LOA, augmented crews etc - that is beyond my knowledge level.
* From page 6.
** From page 8
These numbers differ from the block hours listed on page 3 (although they are very close) which considering it is all the same document does not really inspire confidence.
I think the big takeaway here is how much the combined DAL has shrunk since the merger - total bummer. Although, to be fair most of that "shrinkage" had already occurred by 2007 when the combined block hour total was approximately 3,000,000.
Scoop