Originally Posted by
FangsF15
I mentioned this in another thread yesterday, but current upgrade timing is irrelevant to someone not on property. Things have and are changing far too fast for that data to matter to you.
That said, lately, captain upgrades have been awarded as short as ~18 months at DL. The most recent bid was an outlier, but was about 2.5 years. BUT, it will both get more senior and take longer as hiring has slowed since those pilots were hired. I would suspect that someone applying today could easily see a 5-year upgrade, or even longer. Far too many variables to accurately project though.
I will always reference the "AE Trend Analysis" when people start talking about 'time to upgrade'. Like Fangs said, time is a moving target dependent upon 1) the speed of hiring, 2) the speed of retirements and 3) aircraft deliveries/utilization.
AE Trend Analysis Thread
PS. Credit goes to Fangs for the Data, too.