Originally Posted by
V1rotatebugv2
How quickly could a captain qualified new hire hold a CA slot, and how soon could he/her hold an ATL CA position (200 or 900)?
It’s very much a moving target. The company was very successful in getting senior FOs to take the upgrades in all positions and bases (MSP excluded... for obvious reasons) on the latest vacancy award and upgrade times have been trending up. A recent LOA that shortens the seat lock following an upgrade failure will further drive up upgrade times for junior pilots.
To answer your question:
Junior captain upgrade on latest vacancy: March 2017 hire awarded NYC 200.
Most junior captain transfer to ATL 200 CA: July 2007 here. 900: June 2004 here.
Far, far more junior pilots (we’re talking new hires) have been awarded upgrades, including CA positions in ATL, but there has not much much growth in a ATL recently (I guess more to come following summer) and senior FOs want to upgrade.
TBH I would not expect to upgrade in under 24 months unless additional growth is announced... there is a tremendous number of FOs hired in 2016, 2017, and earlier in 2018 who will fill future vacancies.
Now whether or not future growth will be announced, seems like a very good chance. A very worthy gamble IMO.