Why SFO? A couple of reasons.

though not stated, I am hopeful that this will include some level of a tour of the SFO Maintenance Center. Huge and very cool.

and more importantly, SFO is by far our fastest growing pilot base and is where a majority of the new hire assignments are going.

In the same FOU that gave the details of this event, there was also information on future crew staffing. The SFO pilot base has every equipment type we fly and here is what it said about each of them:

747 - - (keep in mind this fleet is leaving in two years) SFO – We currently expect to see some growth on the captain and first officer seats because of the shift in flying and normal attrition.

777 - - SFO – With the current plans, we now foresee the need for more than 60 additional 777 vacancies in SFO, spread between both seats. This is an increase over the previously stated numbers, and reflects some changes to the plan.

787 - - SFO – We expect that our remaining staffing needs on the 787 to be close to 10 captains and more than 60 first officers, although we may feed some flying from IAH in the short to medium term, thus decreasing the size of future vacancies on both seats.

756 - - SFO – With the CDG trip allocated to the 787 for this winter, we anticipate this base to fly mostly domestic trips in the future. A handful of captains will ultimately be needed in SFO, should we look at this in isolation, but given the system overstaffing, we do not anticipate to place any vacancies until that is resolved. We similarly will need some first officers in SFO, but will not place any vacancies until the system overstaffing is resolved.

737 - - SFO – The hub continues to grow, and our staffing needs reflect that. We therefore currently plan to need more than 25 captain vacancies and more than 75 first officer vacancies. This is prior to accounting for any staffing needs that arise due to growth in other fleets and the natural pilot movement between categories.

A320 - - SFO – We anticipate the growth in SFO to be limited to backfills on both seats.