Originally Posted by
sailingfun
The current block hour plan for next summer requires pilots. If you start hiring in Feb you might get 200 to the line in June. They need more. We are also not 500 plus pilots overmanned. We are over 500 pilots in some categories but short in others. We have 400 plus retirements in the next 12 months. Probably about 500 with early outs. We plan a 3% increase in block hours at the mainline. That’s another 450 jobs.
It’s all about oil. Flights we would operate at 40 a barrel we won’t at 75. If oil goes to 100 we may not hire anyone next summer. I hear the plan is based on oil at 60. Let’s hope it drops!
Don’t you think the U.S oil/fracking industry will help keep oil below $100 though. I was reading about the new realities of oil prices a year or so ago. It costs Saudi Arabia around $15 to pull a barrel of oil out of the ground and it costs the US frackers about $60-65. The theory was that when oil prices exceeded $65 a barrel, all the US rigs would spool up again and bring more oil to market and reduce the severity of price shocks. I’m not too worried about $100 oil, except for a possible short term move, based on geopolitical fear.