Originally Posted by
O2pilot
What makes you think that DEN will be doing all that flying? Just because a flight goes in and out of DEN doesn’t mean all the flights from those 24 gates will be flown by DEN pilots. You’d be shocked how many pilots flying trips that have west coast to Hawaii are EWR based. DEN will grow some, but not all of it, for sure.
Tsk tsk, I never said DEN would be doing all the flying nor did I think it. I try not to state what I think everyone already knows. Here's an interesting comparison though. Right now in the right seat I'm at roughly 51% in 737 DEN for Feb vs. 59% in IAH. If growth in flying at DEN was evenly allocated between all the hubs DEN would likely see the most movement in seniority (after LAX). Why? It is the smallest hub (after LAX). And frankly, I'd wager that DEN would get the largest individual portion of the flying regardless as this would be the more efficient thing to do. Remember the announcement of growth in "Out and Back" flying from our hubs several years back? Not real efficient to do such flying with crews from other bases (and yes, I'm sure crews from other bases do at least some of it).
I'm sure DEN will still rank as a senior base even after all those gates are put to use, but IAH and ORD (where I'd be at 55%) are looking pretty stagnant/constrained the next few years. Kirby and his ilk keep talking about growing our mid-continent hubs, and DEN is the obvious place for that. There are rumors of another international destination possibly coming for DEN too. Time will tell, but I think the fastest ticket off reserve for the OP would easily be DEN.