Originally Posted by
Hotel Kilo
The marching orders for the newly hired SVP was to maximize efficiency of the pilot group. That's why they ran it "a little hot" (they still are). That's the optimizer coming aboard (the circa 2018 one). That's the reason behind the commuter threats, the sick call badgering. The bread crumbs are there, just follow them.
I'm kind of in hockey's camp now, I was one who thought they would hire more this year and on in to next. We will hire next year, but the 1500+ numbers I don't see happening. Especially with the continued delays in MAX and NEO. They want a leaner operation out of us. I don't think we'll hire 1500+ next year, more around ~800 ish. Flight Ops has looked at the data over the last 2 years and they are going to continue to stretch the fleets to the breaking point manning wise. It's all about profit. Nothing more. They'll take the hits in IROPs because those are few and far between. Day to day is what they are looking at. They'll push for any opportunity to maximize our use. They are going to take it and run with it.
While people keep picking up GS left and right, there won’t be much hiring. Pilots are their own enemy…flew with an FO that only had 6-7 days off last month. He was proud of his paycheck, he was burned, but couldn’t wait to do it all over again.