Originally Posted by
BlueScholar
Even with a 50% reduction, DAL hiring 1000+ pilots per year is pretty crazy numbers historically speaking. The good times aren't over yet!
Percentages matter. 1,000 with a pilot corps of 16,000 is 6%. At it's peak AA in the mid 1980's was hiring 1,000 a year and the initial pilot corps size was 5,000. That's 20% in one year. The next year it's 1000/6000 = 17%, 1000/7000 = 14, 1000/8000. We got to 8,000+ and some newhires thought they'd upgrade in 5 years like the Captains did that they were flying with. Where you slot into the hiring curve matters...