Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Higher average utilization also affects need for CAs. And every additional aircraft on the line increases the need for CA authorizations by six or seven. Both airlines have a lot of aircraft on order and except for the older 319s, I don’t see many NK aircraft being retired after merger. But yeah, at steady state every new Ca will require an old one to die, quit, or retire. No airline is very close to steady state right now though.
By utilization I mean pilot utilization. More efficient use of the larger group reducing the need for extra redundancy. I understand more planes means more CA. But I see the 19s going away and jb is getting rid of all their 190s all those pilots will either have to move to the 220 or the 320. If the growth of the combined airline remains about the same the pool of FOs doubles while the number of upgrades needed per month remains about the same it’s going to take longer for a new hire FO to climb the ladder to get their name called. The pilot group is set to almost double. I know jb has a larger pilot group than spirit so slightly less than double. But the combined airline won’t grow at twice the pace as the two separate airlines. The merger is meant to leap frog and take a giant step forward in jb growth plans but post integration growth won’t all the sudden accelerate