To add to your enlightenment, we had plenty of guys here at Delta during our latest section negotiations that were actively telling our new hires to leave and go elsewhere, even AA, all because of a perceived lack of retirement. These guys were typically the ones who still feel burned by losing their pensions during the bankruptcy years. Not much gets my blood boiling but when I found this out I couldn't believe it.

I mention this because everyone has their reasons for believing what they believe, however, even at a desirable place like Delta, we have our Debbie Downers, too.

And to the poster stating we are hiring 1000 this year, everything that's been made public from flight ops suggests only 700. That said, it's a fluid number but this year brings displacements from the closing of the 747 category, the new A350, and late this year the first wave of CS100 training events. 700 may be more plausible as the demand on on training department will be intense due to all of these issues.