There has been no shift in AE strategy by flight ops. They had planned the first A350 bid for Aug. that was based on getting 15 airframes in the first 18 months. They needed 450 A350 pilots on the line for those airframes. There is very limited A350 training capacity so they needed to start that training well in advance of the first line flights next June. With the reduction to 11 airframes in the first 18 months they now need only 330 pilots in that time frame and no longer have to front load the pipeline.
The other wide body bids are on hold waiting a update from marketing on the flying. The international outlook is not all that great so I expect the new plan will not be better for us.
The part below is simply conjecture on my part. It was announced at last winters roadshows that the summer 17 block hours on the 747 would be very close to this summer and not only would they not displace but would have to post some bids to cover retirements. With recent developments perhaps they are rethinking that. Originally they had hoped to time the big 747 displacement to coincide with the A350 bids. Doing so reduces training events substantially. They may have a opportunity to go back to that plan. That's not good news for us however smart if the marketing plan for next summer can be flown with fewer or no 747's.