Bingo..... Staffing and growth all has to do with block hrs. What's the good of having 100 planes with only 5,000 block hours? You can have 500 Dep a day on a 50 seater but if they are all 1 hr flights it won't match well with 400 Dep against a 70-76 seater. I do agree the number of departures can give you a GENERAL idea of block hrs but not accurate enough (my guess is +/-3,000 block hrs depending on fleet size). I do look at our Deps when staffing was good find out the block hrs for that month. I did the same during the summer. With that baseline I have a, I dare say, good guess on our block hrs when looking at our DEPs. I am usually within 3,000 block hrs and I admit that is a rather large gap. Finding out actual blocks hrs is best. MATH MATH MATH...... I know... it's more work than it is really worth and I just probably painted a huge bulls eye on my face to you guys.