Originally Posted by sailingfun

I had a friend at the LCA meeting. Between that and lounge shows here are what they are saying with regards to fleet plans. The DC-9-30's are leaving fast. The 40 and 50 series will be phased out by 2012. That means all the nines gone in the next 3.5 years give or take. A-330's will be flying out of JFK as soon as next Spring on the AMM, TLV and CAI routes. 747-400's will be flying out of ATL as early as next spring on some South American routes. This surprised me as I thought it would be Narita and Capetown. 767ER's will be doing some MSP and DET flying to replace the A-330's. These aircraft movements will not involve base changes for pilots in the Spring. They will be covered by flying 6 or 9 day trips and deadhead. They hope to have the first integrated advance entitlement out in late 09 for Spring 10 flying. That assumes we have a SLI in place this fall.

Originally Posted by sailingfun

They are planning on replacing some of the nines. They are looking at thirty MD-90's from China and taking delivery of a additional 15 737-700's. The plan is to trade RJ's for the 90's. The MD90 is actually very underated. It has a excellent fuel burn per seat and they can be had for a song right now. If those narrow bodies arrive and with the need for around 400 additional pilots at NWA to transtion to the Delta contract there should be no furloughs. They have firmed up two additional 777's for next year which is huge. Each 777 is staffed at 3 to 3.5 times the domestic narrow body staffing rate. They are still planning on hiring this winter for next summers flying. Lets keep our fingers crossed!!

Originally Posted by Superpilot92

If the MD90s do come and replace some DC9s will they put those on the NWA side until the SOC?

Originally Posted by sailingfun

They are planning on replacing some of the nines. They are looking at thirty MD-90's from China and taking delivery of a additional 15 737-700's. The plan is to trade RJ's for the 90's. The MD90 is actually very underated. It has a excellent fuel burn per seat and they can be had for a song right now. If those narrow bodies arrive and with the need for around 400 additional pilots at NWA to transtion to the Delta contract there should be no furloughs. They have firmed up two additional 777's for next year which is huge. Each 777 is staffed at 3 to 3.5 times the domestic narrow body staffing rate. They are still planning on hiring this winter for next summers flying. Lets keep our fingers crossed!!

Originally Posted by anotherASAP

Even over 3.5 years...that's alot of NWA iron slated to retire. I hope the SLI clearly accounts for the staggering retirements on the North's side of the equation.