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I completely agree. So the Company wants 50 more 76-seaters. Do you know why?? Because we have a bunch of cities that NETWORK thinks can mostly fill 5X 76-seaters per day rather than 2.5X Maddogs or 320s or 737s. The business traveller, who we count on to pay a premium, seems to value frequency and time-of-day choice. And there are some cities, like Flint, or Idaho Falls, that will NEVER fill 5X 737s. So if network wants 50 more, it doesn't bother me a whole lot. They feed our NETWORK, make us money and get me a fatter Valentine's Day happy check!

50 X 76-seaters is the same capacity as 25X maddogs. Or 320s. 0r 737s. (approx) Those 25 jets of capacity need 350 mainline pilots. (approx) We are hiring nearly that many pilots every 70 days. The "net" impact of an additional 50 76-seaters does not make me want to jump up and down and hold my breath if it's in the next TA. Now granted, I'm pretty high up in the food chain, but before Thanksgiving, we will have hired an additional 350 pilots since the beginning of this month, so I honestly don't get the pantie wadding that is occurring on this forum. (And NO, I'm not an ALPA apologist or a 4th floor cube-dweller either.)

On another note, has anybody heard of any progress (or lack thereof) in the NMB assisted meetings this week?
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