That was the case last year with less deliveries than planned so they were conservative with staffing this year but instead there were more deliveries than expected. 2 more in Q1 for a total of 9, should be 16 by the end of the year but they want to pull pilots from the airbus since they are retiring some. The total fleet was 127 in Jan and the plan is 122 by year end. Yes about 10 per plane (not counting sim instructors and mngt) unless they get the 70% unstacking they want then company can go down to 8 pilots per plane. New hire classes seem unlikely this year but hopefully early next year.

basically we have the supply (aircraft + pilots) but there is not enough demand (pax + yields). Not a good sign for our industry. Complete 180 from just 18 months ago.

Overall Allegiant is overstaffed with pilots. They are pulling out some flying do to demand trends. They had the 737 overstaffed while waiting for aircraft. Now that they have aircraft they are getting all those pilots finished up with training. While they waited on 737 to cover the flying with AB they Back filed the AB so now the 737 staff is about aright but the AB is Overstaffed and we are retiring or selling some Airbus aircraft. This means at the end of the year we will have less overall aircraft than we started with. Its is possible 26 will be the same or possible small increase of Aircraft. Depending on 737 delivery and how many AB leave the fleet. What they are doing now is instead of preloading staff to the 737 with delivery schedules all over the place they are going to put some 737 into short term storage tell they can train up pilots and integrate to the schedule. They are not backfilling most if any AB spots opened with pilots transitioning to 737 as the AB is overstaffed and fleet is reducing in size currently at slightly more than 1 for 1 as 737 come online. They have room to grow block hours with the current staff of pilots so until a time we grow overall feet or attrition picks up we will not need additional pilots on property. We could be as much as 200 or more overstaffed depending on how much flying the pull from the system.

maybe i'm dumb, but i read the navblue description of unstacking and i don't get it. How does changing the percentage of unstacking increase or decrease the pilots needed per plane?

it doesn’t. Union put Pilots per plane in there passes as part of staffing.

Contracts have had staffing requirements way before anybody even heard about PBS. Staffing is based on block hours per pilot - that is industry standard. Not some pilots per plane, I don’t even know why the union brings that up?

It normally doesn't since every other airline has a staffing model with unstacking as their backup plan. Here, the company wants no staffing model so they can staff less and cover all of the peak summer and holiday flying with 70% unstacked on. After the bid is done then all the extra open time gets dumped on lineholders regardless of seniority to cover all the trips so you can carry less pilots.

Why do you only mention what the union is passing? If you know what the union is passing then you must know that the company is passing. They want no min staffing levels or one they can reduce headcount with and use stacking as primary method in peak months and staff just enough.

I know what the union has passed, not sure what’s going on lately. I also know that the prior NC said that management put United’s staffing model into one of the company’s passes. Don’t know what happened to it, that was a while ago.

Management at the training center a couple years ago made a big deal about “an industry standard staffing model” because it was based on block hours per pilot. Go look at any ALPA or legacy contract and the staffing model is block hours, no aircraft per pilot.

Not trying to make icebergs out of snowflakes but unstacking is not how you preserve jobs. Staffing models are job protection. Pilots have been worried about job protection decades before PBS was even around. Not sure why these ridiculous people in management and the union are fighting about unstack when they should be talking staffing model to save our jobs.

So uh, any new news on any allegiant hiring? Or nothing for the remainder of the year. Also how's the contract thing going for the horrible pay, any updates

The relationship between company and union is so dysfunctional, expect a contract no earlier than 2030. Seriously, wysiwyg for the long foreseeable future.

Direct quote from the company on recent vancancy bid...

"Our next new hire class could be as early as early 2026, but timing is still under evaluation as we continue to adapt to the integration of the B737, evolving delivery timelines, minimal attrition, and the ‘softening demand’ of air travel in the industry as of late. We will continue to keep you updated as exact timing becomes known. At this point it is highly unlikely that we will have a new hire class in 2025 due to the aforementioned factors."