Originally Posted by
iaflyer
I don't see the bold part as being true for new hires. There is no reason why they can't be in the school house in the summer. They aren't being pulled off the line to switch airplanes, so there isn't a loss in the system.
Most of the instructors are DGS, so no loss there. Any SLI instructors are probably less busy because they aren't doing as much CQ or Captain upgrades as normal, to keep people on the line for the summer. (a smart training dept would train people expiring in June in May, and August people in Sept).
In 2007 they hired and trained right through the summer. In 2008, the hired in March/April and probably trained through the summer as well.
New hire training does not function in a vacuum. If you were to hire 300 new hires in the spring they have to go to a seat on a aircraft. That means you have to move 300 pilots off that seat to another seat. That means moving those pilots ect...
In order to sustain hiring year round the company has to overstaff the airline by about 5 to 10 percent depending on the amount of hiring. By hiring only in the fall the company can avoid some of that overstaffing which leads sadly to furloughs or surplus pilots not needed. If the economy continues to improve they may hire year round however without a major aircraft order that is not likely. We will begin to max out our current assets and hiring will only be on a attrition basis. I hope that changes with a aircraft order however no one know is talking about a order at this point. The only wildcard is the 787 discussions.