Originally Posted by
RockyBoy
I believe you Sailing and have been hearing rumblings of the same type, I'm just saying that in 2007 they said the same thing and ended up hiring over 700 people.
The guys they are hiring now are not for summer 2011 flying IMHO. If they really wanted them for the summer of 2011, they would run some large classes starting in January. Why hire guys for summer 2011 in August? They will be online by October just in time for the winter schedule. They can run guys through class starting in January for the summer flying.
Projected retirements for 2010 were 3 and at month 6 we have had around 150. If that trend continues then we will have around 300 retirements which is what I believe is driving this round of 300 they are hiring/recalling. If summer 2011 looks good in December of this year you will see classes in Jan-Feb-Mar to cover the 2011 summer schedule.
Almost all of those over 150 retirements this year were from the early retirement program offered to the NWA pilots. I believe all of those pilots were scheduled to be gone by May so I don't think you will see more then a handful of retirements the rest of this year. I just spoke with one NWA pilot who was thinking of leaving in Aug. He is making so much money now that he has figured out the contract and GS's that he plans on staying for a while.