Rumor was that there were a little over 100 in the "pool" as of early December, and the increase in flying that they planned would mean an additional 300ish pilots needed by next summer above the prior plan.

The problem is that the plan has changed so many times I don't know if that means 300 more than 0 or 300 more than a larger number.

This was presented in a discussion ( I heard it from a TK guy and an LCA, so it has to be true!) about what was going on with the interview folks in Mid December (and their plans for the new year) and that they were being encouraged by the training side to keep up the interview schedule so that the higher numbers could be accommodated if the increased flying came through. A little over a week later we got the Manpower update in which the increased flying plan for the summer was confirmed.

Hopefully, we will get the vacancy bid this week which will give another hint as to how big the demand is really going to be.

Based on the conversation I heard, the manpower update, and the updated class schedule, I think we are looking at over 300 new hires available to the line by the end of June, which would mean about 30 per class. I will hope for even more, but I will put my guess at that, which would mean 330 new hires (or furlough returns) starting class before the end of April.