Originally Posted by
Stitches
Prior to AirTran swa had about 5500 pilots, 8300 now. Prior to CQT recurrent was only 1 sim, now it's 2. New hires used to have type ratings, most don't these days and the syllabus is expanding although I don't know by how much yet. Add in all increased hiring and upgrades that need several sims each and you get the picture.
This is a plausible reason for 18 sims but last week in AQP they told the class that SWA will have 11,000 pilots in the next 3-5 years. I really don't believe they could train a net of 3,000 pilots in the next 3-5 years. The training department is under staffed now and struggling to keep who they have. Plus they'll be in competition with the 3 legacies for pilots. So are they lying to us or is there a merger/buyout in the works with an airline that has about 3,000 pilots? Maybe with an airline that placed an order for 60 airframes about the same time SWA deferred the delivery of 60 airframes? Time will tell.