As it should.

How new hires ever got into the highest paid positions in the first place is amazing!

 

One of those that got it bid off to be NB CA on the AE two months ago. Was surprised to see that.

 

Why is that surprising? Those pilots are going to be stuck for years at the absolute bottom of the category, with nearly zero chance of even one junior bidder, much less any reasonable progress in seniority. That may be fine with some, but it shouldn't surprise anyone when others decide they value having some seniority (or a better commute) over 1-leg days and dozing for dollars (as great as that can be).

 

The extra income could completely replace a spouse’s income…not an insignificant jump. And if you’re getting forced into 6-day trips or a commute - WBB definitely isn’t for everybody.

 

Yep, I’ve spoken with a few WB and NB B newhires and they figure they might as well make capt money if they’re junior. Considering how NB schedules are similar top to bottom and reroutes can mess up the good ones, they aren’t really far off base.

 

Didn't realize new hires were ever getting WB B out of training, what is the wait time now for a new hire to hold WB B out of ATL / NYC?

 

Doesn't happen anymore. WB B in NYC is trending back to about 70% seniority company wide

 

That's a tough question to answer, in part because the sands are often shifting, and in part because we have some international growth coming over the next 5 years. But...

ATL is, and has always been, pretty senior for WB B. Honestly, it will probably take better part of a decade for ATL. Conversely, NYC is, and has always been, the most junior WB B.

As Fastpilot said above, the most junior WB B has been going to about 70% in the company, but NYC might get to ~80% as we go forward. But very likely somewhere between those goalposts. Incidentally, DOH, or "years to hold" is a horrible metric, given the crazy hiring we have had in the last couple years, and the slight slowdown in pace of hiring coming. We will hire around 2400 total this year, 1700 next year, and 1300 annually going forward. With a current list of around 16500 & about 500 retirements a year, you can do some math, but suffice to say, if current (which is also the historic) trends hold going forward, you are probably looking at 4-8 years for 80% and 70% respectively in NYC. At least for planing purposes, that's what I would expect.

 

last I’d heard they’d amended their hiring plans to 2000-2500 again next year (and they keep changing them) but on the whole I agree with all of this.

 

that would put us around 18,500-19,000 pilots by end of year next year. Pretty impressive if it holds up

Also that would also mean ~40% of our pilot group will have been hired in a 3.5 year timeframe