The elephant in the room is this new training center being built. Something is in the mix with all these simulators being brought in. When that is up and running, it is anyone's guess on hiring numbers and growth. As stated, hopefully it is internal and the rumored "1000" pilots a year can become reality. Well, we can hope...
Originally Posted by
ZapBrannigan
There are still AirTran captains who downgraded when they came over who have yet to upgrade again. We need all of them to upgrade and the fleet to be equal to what it was when the 717s were still in the mix. Those will ratchet up the upgrade time for a few years before it begins to fall again. We just don't have the retirements that the legacies do to drive upgrades. Best we can hope for is a "third shift" (red eyes) to increase aircraft utilization. That block hour increase is the equivalent of adding more airplanes and will yield additional upgrades, new hires, and should also necessitate a third shift of reserves.
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