Originally Posted by sailingfun

None of the manning issues has anything to do with the TA. Just like the last TA the company is not planning any manning change from the TA. We lost in some areas on manning and gained in others. Delta has almost every year in a hiring cycle slowed the hiring in the summer months to maximize pilots flying the line. This year was worse because of marketing adding summer flying last Dec. The company did a emergency bump in the hiring last winter to keep the 757 staffed for the new hours. The net hiring plan for all of 16 has not changed one pilot. We will be overstaffed for the winter on many airframes with the huge reduction in winter block hours. The 757/767 fleet will drop 30%.
The great unknown at the moment is the fate of the 190's and additional 737's. The 190's would have required an additional 600 plus pilots for 50 airframes with hiring for those airframes to start late fall. Perhaps we will know tomorrow at the earnings call the plan for those airframes. The drop in summer hiring is normal and will probably happen again next summer.