Originally Posted by Timbo

On the LCA trip pull thing, think about how many new hires we have right now, and how many are being hired. If the company hires 1000 per year, that's AT LEAST 2000 trips per year, as they all need at least a couple trips for IOE.

Now add in all the first time Captain upgrades and F/O and Captain seat changes from all the A/E's for the past 12 months. They usually get two trips for OE too.

I'll bet the real answer is; we had probably over 4,000 LCA trips last year, maybe more.

That's at least 3,000 less 'good' trips for F/O's to bid, spread across the system of course, but the net effect is a whole lot less manning required in the F/O seats, and/or a whole lot less GS's if those guys are now on reserve.

Here's the napkin math: If the average IOE trip is 25 hours x 3000 IOE trips = 75,000 hours of trips, divided by an average line value of 75 hours = 1,000 fewer pilots required. THAT's why the company wants this!
The Trip Drop for IOE is one of the last good deals in our contract and for some reason, DALPA agreed to give it away.