FWIW, a few months back during the last round of check airman meetings a certain VP was allegedly claiming mainline growth of 250-300 airframes and 15,000 pilots in five years. It was (allegedly once again) this growth combined with retirements that drove the decision to centralize training at DENTK as there was no good option to move both training centers and maintain the required training tempo.

In the interim it sounds like the rumor has improved to 16,000 in two.

Makes one wonder if the "truth" is more like 14000 in 2020?