I spoke with 2 APDs in the past 3 days, 1 having attended the ATL meeting. They both said the number they’ve heard is 1000-1200. They and other DPS IPs have stated that they’re manned right now (or were) at the immediately post COVID rate, meaning capable of handling up to 23-2500 students per year, and have been as such even as the hiring has gone back to a normal 1000 people rate. I think they said ~30 DPS IPs were going to go away which stinks, and a certain % of SLIs would be back to the line. They’re just over staffed for the current hiring requirements.

It doesn't seem that crazy to me to think that we could be hiring over 1,000 in 2025 in the instructors still be currently overstaffed for that.

The instructors were very recently downsized.

Training was staffed for 2k+/year. Made it pretty clear we aren't going to be doing that anymore. Truth be told, a 10% instructor cut still leaves us "robustly" manned.

I have also heard the rumors of 300ish, but when I dig into I keep hearing the 1000+.

If we were going to 300 a year, a 50% SLI cut wouldnt be enough.

I hope you are right. But something has changed very recently.

I don’t buy the argument that the training department is currently manned for 2300 students and only now is realizing they are overstaffed for 1000-1200, and that’s all this is. 1000+ has been semi-officially published for 6 months, at least, and would have been planned for already. No, this recent announcement has caused much consternation in the SLI ranks, and is a surprise to them. Let’s not forget, some DPS instructors are losing their jobs completely.

It may well not be as low as 300 (and again, I’ve tried to say each time that’s a dubious rumor that needs corroboration, and hesitated to use the actual number until other discussion seemed to bolster it generally). But again, this week’s announcement is much more consistent with something in that ballpark than in 1200. The truth may (probably) lies in the middle.

Any actual SLI’s here have any info they can pass on?

Regardless, Flt Ops needs to make an announcement asap.

The writing was on the wall for SLIs for a long time. CTCs reported overmanning for quite a few months, and offered plans how to mitigate without having to cut. That included significantly higher rotations to the line (which causes loss of instructor proficiency), artificiality limiting the number of extra duty periods to be picked up, among other things. Unfortunately those mitigations appear to not have been enough. The hiring frenzy of the past few years is over, and the training department hired to be staffed for that frenzy.

I’m not hearing where anybody is surprised. The only people I can imagine that would be surprised is perhaps the 320 guys, as they have the most robust fleet/growth plans.

I am an SLI. Current plan we’ve been told is to hire 1000ish pilots per year.

As far as SLI and DPS staffing…this is a bit of sore point. Of course they pay DPS less. They just cut SLIs and DPS. I checked Oct schedules. All the SLIs had 17 events. I saw DPS with 25 events. 🤬

Sorry not sorry about DPS. If they all went away, replaced by SLIs, that would be a great thing.

Thanks for that. Just a point of clarification. Is the “current” plan you reference before or after these reductions in the last few days? Do you not perceive this immediate reduction portends a meaningful change in hiring? The ALPA council newsletter reads as if there is gnashing of teeth (as quoted above)

Is it your sense this is simply a small tweak to account for a lack of voluntary departures to the line?

Not at all shocked they are maxing out the (cheaper) NSLI’s at the expense of SLI positions though.

From a regular line pilot perspective, future, QOL, etc, I understand what you mean. In actual practice, I can’t say I agree but I do understand. The old guys who have since retired from DAL and others, gotta be doing this just for kicks and the love, and honestly, my interactions have been nothing short of phoenominal with them. But I’ve also met guys who clearly lost their medical long before making what they perceived as enough to retire on and are doing this as their income, and I wouldn’t wish them losing their job so I have some potential future spot, that’s just not me but again, I get the sentiment.