Here's what we know.

400-450 new hires. 250-300 upgrades.

Boeing wants us to take 72 MAX7/MAX8 aircraft in 2020. These will be in addition to the 34 MAX8 aircraft currently parked. I'm sure behind the scenes there are negotiations to acquire more MAXs at a significant discount.

Some (unknown amount) older 737-700s will be retired or returned to lessors.

The LEAD Center expansion will be completed in Fall of 2020. Sim capacity will rise to 26, from the 18 the current building holds.

Overstaffing will continue for the foreseeable future. I there are only 150 retirements next year. Even if we get 100 more aircraft online (very optimistic) by the end of 2020 we will still have a relatively high pilot to aircraft ratio. This is assuming no "game-changer" like red-eyes.

No vacancy bid in January 2020. First time a month has been skipped I think since 2014?

Long term there is reason to optimistic. They are still telling new hires 12,000 pilots by 2022, and we'll be up to 1200 airplanes in ten years.

Long term aircraft plans? Management has said it's too hard to spool up another aircraft type and our future is tied to the MAX. That probably means another type, considering that things that were too hard to do like opening a Denver base and purchasing AirTran ended up happening.

Most importantly, Zap will likely get an opportunity to sit Oakland reserve in the left seat long before he gets to 10 years on property.