Originally Posted by
pilotgolfer
Joe,
That website used all the pilots on the seniority list...it didn't exclude non-active pilots. I wish I saved my snapshot but I believe my results are similar to yours.
Our pilot head count has been pretty static the last few years. It's always around 12,500 give or take a hundred. I still think hiring is barely keeping pace with retirements.
Originally Posted by
Boeing Aviator
Pilots on any type of leave - sick leave, LTD, some sort of personal or company leave are accounted for on monthly staffing and are double bid on vacancy and displacement bids. Even if someone is on LTD for decades and they are never coming back, until they retire, quit or pass away they are accounted for in staffing, vacancy bids and the seniority list.
I've tracked my seniority the same way you have for years and I'm ahead of my projected seniority by a couple hundred numbers and I'm just under 2000 on our seniority list.
Since the only way someone comes off our seniority list, staffing and vacancy bids is by retiring, quitting, get fired or pass away my assumption is a fair amount of early Pre age 65 retirements.
Your monthly staffing number is updated every month. It's your most accurate current system seniority number.
Thanks for the info.
I guess I'll count it as unexpected good news plus I think you're right PG - they're just barely keeping up with retirements. More importantly though it seems that the old guesstimate of 50-75 medicals a year may be a little off now that we're allowed to go to 65. Looks like 100 is a better guesstimate.
For me this all boils down to my first captain bid. I had been planning to take the next available 73 or Airbus. I can hold 756 but I was planning on skipping that because I didn't want to give up my Christmas off time since I am usually the family host, but this faster movement means I'd have a good chance of only missing Christmas 2017 and by Christmas 2018 I should be senior enough to bid it off so all of a sudden it looks like my first captain bid may be 756. That would be great for me since I spent 17 years in the right seat, I'm pretty sure it'd be a smooth transition plus I love the flying on the 756 out of EWR. Transcons are my first choice by far.