I was in a meeting in ORD this week and Scott Kirby came in the room and said he had just inked a deal with Easy Jet for 21 used Airbus 319’s. Howard Attarian said possibility 30 more. Over all we have 100 plus firm airplanes being delivered over the next 3 years with none being parked. I would say that is growth.

All management explained the hiring numbers being the way that they are because......

1. We have been a seasonal airline. We fly a ton in the summer and almost shutdown in Jan & Feb. we are going to level that out.

2. Parking the 747-400 was the equivalent of hiring a years worth of pilots at an aggressive rate. The Training center was unprepared for this and are just recovering now. The last of the 400 pilots are going through training now.

3. The 4-6% growth is ASM’s (available seat miles) not growth of airplanes or pilots. The growth number that we want to hear, airplanes and pilots equates to 2 1/2-3% at the max. The ASM growth will be achieved through flying our planes more. An example was given that there are 9 banks a day in ORD but only during 3 or 4 of the 9 banks are the gates completely occupied. They want to fill all the gaps and keep the airplanes moving not sitting. That does mean more pilots because of more flying.

4. United hasn’t hit the big retirement numbers just yet. Delta and American has. We are only retiring at the most 400 and maybe a few more on medical. We should start to see the hiring numbers pick up soon.

On the positive side... I did hear one management pilot say to expect 3 year Capts in the not too distant future based on our aircraft orders.

None of this is my opinion. I’m passing along what I heard from some of UAL’s top management.