Here are the latest comparisons between the 3 legacies:

Pilots per plane:
American 15.0
Delta 15.1
United 17.0

Forecast hires 2018 (per APC):
American 900
Delta 1200
United 450?

Actual hires 2017:
American 637
Delta 1082
United 428

Hiring historical:
https://fapa.aero/hiringhistory.asp

Mandatory retirement 2018, 2019
American 528, 637
Delta 353, 448
United 398, 411

Average Calendar Day done deal
 

TW:

Not sure where you are getting your info, this is current as of Aug 18:

aircraft/total active pilots - crew ratio
———————————————
AA - 951/14599 - 15.35
DAL - 875/14,600 - 16.68
UAL - 730/12,517 - 17.14

Of course this is general, and not a fleet specific breakdown, but you get the gist and point remains the same. AAL runs a much leaner ship with no give for natural system flexibility. The margin for error in the scheduling is razor thin with no ‘insurance’ and although we have almost 30-40% more middle management than other legacies/majors, I’d say we have half the talent. DAL runs a leaner ship than say UAL, but they hand out premium at a much higher rate than AA, ensuring a smoother operation with flexibility for the natural day to day disruption. AA is way behind on both crew staffing flexibility and management culture. We are really screwed if things don’t change!

The company can’t afford a long, drawn out sec 6 with natural and targeted disruptions (and no, I’m not advocating for any) so they need to change their stick first “culture” all across the board if we are to catch up to DAL revenues. We can’t make money if we can’t operate a regular schedule without serious issues.


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Thanks for the info. Delta aircraft on APC needs significant updates, then. They show 925 instead of 875.

APC is good for a snapshot, but they’re a lot like Wikipedia, only as good as the data input.


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Agreed. But most airline counts are much closer to reality. AA is off by the last few months new a/c receipts and some mad dog retirements. But the overall count is pretty close.:D

Recent AA Crew Schedule success in avoiding Premium (1.5 hourly rate).

Instead of going to straight Premium on a 3-day and paid 27 hours of pay, they broke it up into 4 different trips.

Instead of paying 27 hours, they ended up paying 47 hours total, but the Director Of Crew Scheduling can say in the morning meeting that she avoided paying Premium.

Exactly this. And yet we rob Peter to pay Paul and wonder why the whole thing falls apart. These people have literally perfected tripping over $20 to pick up a dime... UFB


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jeeze, this sounds like PSA. Just finished a trip that on the captains side was covered as one trip, but broken up into 6 different pairings on the FO side. Burning 4 reserves. only two legs were picked up at "premium". absolutely bizarre.

It’s already happening. Many four days end with a red eye home. Now hopefully instead of 18-19 hours they’ll pay the full rig. However the company has already made the adjustments. Don’t really see 3 days and gone for less then 36 hours for 15:45 pay happening. They will optimize it and rightfully so. However if these trips that end with a red eye now pay a little more that’s a nice addition. However they’ve already made steps to not do 1 leg out 1 leg back red eyes at 15:45. Most are now 2-3 legs out 1 leg back.

Is there a source for this info or is this speculation?