Southern's CEO announced a few days ago that SAI, effective January 2015, is abandoning the B747 due to a depressed market, low hourly rates, and customers unwilling to sign contracts for more than 12 months. No one can make money flying the Whale anymore yadda, yadda, yadda.

I'm sure there is some truth to rates and contract terms being depressed throughout the market. One less B747 player will be good for the remaining ACMI companies. Only the future will tell whether this is a smart move for SAI. I know all of the pilots here are sad to see the mighty B747 disappear from our fleet.

SAI will continue to operate the 2 remaining B747's through December. The third is already being returned. The 42 B747-400 pilots will begin transition training on the B777 beginning in January. A few 777 Captains will be displaced to FO by more senior 747 Captains but overall there will be no furloughs or displacement to the B737. A few that can hold the left seat in the B737 may choose that route. Who knows?

The good news through all of this is that there is another B777 on the way around April and rumors of other deals beyond. Hence the quick retirement of the B747 and immediate retraining of pilots.

I doubt there will be more new hires beyond what are already in the pipeline for now. I hope I'm wrong, but I would imagine that any additional hiring in the near future will be for the B737. The next airframe for that fleet arrives in February and another in June.

Keep trying if SAI is where you want to work. Things could change overnight for better or worse.