Nicely done!

Now if I could only get this line out of my head:

I flew an RJ,
So call me Baby

If, continue, could, as early? You take all that as a statement they were going to hire? We read it very differently. I read it as hiring is possible in the 4th quarter depending on a bunch of things. That statement is correct. Hiring is possible. The block hour plan will decide if its needed.
All is not lost however. I have a investment deal for you. Send me 10 grand. I will make you some money, If there is no economic downturn, unanticipated event, I execute my trading plan then I might make a profit for you as early as next Spring. Are you in?

Sailing,

Agree this had so many outs for management. I took it as a plea for the junior folks to vote for the TA. I think the ultimate reason we will initially hire is not for the block hour plan but rather, the need to lead turn the hiring required for the eventual retirements.

Many have said we simply don't have the training capacity we once had and will be maxed out at 600 per year. What I see happening though is this: The board, in order to not carry extra pilots, will not hire until it's too late and then Flight Ops will be forced to tell the network guys that their glorious plan for world domination is just so much pie in the sky. If they don't think outside the spreadsheet they won't be able to quickly react, and that is the ultimate decision here. To their credit however, our management has repeatedly shown out of the box thinking and the desire to run an airline!

No problem. Management will outsource to any of its two dozen partner air lines and if it runs into a scope problem, ALPA will fix it.

$100,000 + Captain gigs at Delta Private Jets violate scope? C2012, it aint a problem.

They can sustain almost 1000 a year. When we had much less sim capacity they were doing 100 a month for several months. If they lack sims then they simply contract out for them. They will not front load the retirements much. There is however another factor. Once we enter a sustained hiring mode it keeps a bunch of pilots off the line. Generally its a 5 to 7 percent factor. That means that once sustained hiring starts they have to staff the airline for the pilots in school. Thats 500 to 700 jobs. Its also why furloughs almost always follow after a hiring cycle. Your instantly surplus 5 to 7 percent of your pilots even if you keep the exact same block hours.
Unless there is a huge drop on overall system block hours we will hire by next fall. They have to in order to staff the block hours moving from DCI to the mainline. The retirements start up shortly after. If we don't hire late this fall I would expect classes starting next August and continuing on a sustained pace for many years.
That is of course if the economy gets better, Delta executes its business plan ect...... :)

I worked in the Training Department in the late 90's as an F/O instructor and we did 100 a month back then. i worked many 100 plus hour months doing seat fillers, etc. We had sims contracted out for all A/c types as the pipeline was maxed out. No reason they can't do it again.

Oh, so thats why we always furlough after hiring. Makes sense. I thought it was a RLA requirement. :D

I don't know who started the 600 pilots a year capacity issue but I was hired in early 2000 and we were easily converting 100 blue suited red tied aspiring Deltoids into double breasted hat wearing Deltoids.

Scoop

Just because Delta wants the extra sim time doesn't mean it will be available. I am sure other airlines are banking on using contract sims also.

Dude, I mean The Dude, I think McKayla would even be impressed:

http://cdn.imnotobsessed.com/wp-cont...ve-520x764.jpg

Take one Bar, take one.