9.28 comes from union projection of max flows per month every month with no outside attrition for a new hire at the time that projection was made. There are those that point to the fact that there IS outside attrition but they generally ignore the fact the outside attrition is usually very junior so it has only a small effect on that number and that the times when AA takes a month off from hiring generally has negated outside attrition. Most, including myself, thought that due to retirements that for the first time ever the union projection was a bit on the conservative side, some thought more so that ohers.

Nobody saw THIS coming though. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the 9.28 stretched to beyond 10 years... it’s not that much of a difference.