Originally Posted by
ORDinary
I didn't say that. But small term glitches in hiring/training have never been avoided. I would not be surprised to see 40 in the second Feb class.
As somebody else pointed out, as long as we send 25, this is actually a good thing. If they are going to meter anyway (and assuming we don't win the grievance over it, which maybe seems likely), then the ideal situation for envoy pilots would be AA hiring 50/month. Less than ideal is when they skip a whole month (like last October), and then have a huge month (like November, with 88, 25 of which were flows).
I agree, there will be small short-term glitches. That is one of the reasons, I believe, the AA hiring plan shows a lesser number per month in the fall, that the first 8 or 9 months of the year. It gives them space to recover to meet their plan of 920 hires for 2018.
As you pointed out, last fall they skipped a whole month. The consensus seems to be it was because the Schoolhouse got jammed up with training to new aircraft as part of the Mad Dogs going to the desert the end of 2017.
With this year’s hire plan at 920 and last year’s actual at 645, the entire pipeline has had to be expanded. In a few years, even 920 will barely be enough to handle mandatory retirements. As you said, there will be short-term glitches along the way.