Just because there were 22 airplanes, doesn't mean they were all being used. I remember in an SSC report that only 14-16 of those 747s were really needed to fly everything the fleet flew.

We don't staff based on # of planes. Its based on amount of flying. So we could go from 22 747s and only replace them with 18 777s (remember we just added 4 more) and 3 787s, for a total of 21 planes, but actually add flying, like LAX-SIN and EWR-EZE.

I don't think the current lack of bids have anything to do with losing flying. We will almost certainly fly more in summer of 2018 than this summer. Its just that the displacements are creating a training issue and TK is also undergoing construction, which is causing issues.

I think its going to be fine, with some potentially very large vacancy bids in the fall/winter.