I think you mean "without" hiring pilots right? I think that's what you ment by that.

I was called for a interview and then it was cancelled. I received a letter from the "hiring guru" stating that those who were called but cancelled are "number one at the hold short" and will be called first.

Anyone else at the "hold short" with me? (Double Secret Probation maybe?!)

MARTY!!

FWIW, I was told via email back in late March/early April when the interviews were stopped/cancelled that my application had been selected for interview and when interviewing resumed late fall early winter that I would be called. Also was told to keep updating airline apps. I did not have an interview hard scheduled but knew of several folks who had theirs cancelled as well.

Well the Fleet guys and Crew Resources are saying two totally different things then.

That's not suprising. On my forced sabbatical '01-'06, I worked in crew resources for another airline, and we were always the last to know about any fleet or marketing changes. We were then supposed to magically produce the crews required to fly the schedule. It never seemed to occur to the other departments that there is a lead time required to hire, train, and deploy new crewmembers.

The only issue with that is that there wont be "surplus" NWA pilots as is. Not to mention he 787 is coming towards the fall of 09 which require more pilots. Either way it will be an interesting year wont it? Lets hope oil heads further south and stabilizes, fingers crossed ;)

Super,
As always you are the optimist, and as always, I hope you are correct. But it would take a lot more 787's to cancel out parking the '9s. Lets just hope manning the NW side via the DAL side manning formulas does the trick.
Scoop

Well being the optimist that i am i will bring up the argument that DAL mgmt has stated numerious times that the DC9s will play a role in the merged airline until at least 2012. The 30's may be in question depending on fuel(20 will be left after the end of the year). Leaving the -40's and -50's of which we will have 41 total. The 18 firm orders we have with the 787 will eventually require roughly 680 pilots. That is more than the total dc9 pilots we have now i believe. Now mind you we are discussing a number of different timelines here and that is where all the variables will need to be added in.

The optimist and educated guesser in me says the DC9s stick around until 2012, the 787 shows up late next year 2009, possible additional aircraft purchases (md90's or 737s) to replace -9 feed, potential # of early out retirees, and add that with bringing the NWA planes up to the DAL staffing model we are talking about additional pilots needed for both sides or the new Delta Airlines. ;)

Same here.

I hope your version of the fleet plan is correct but I think you are a little optimistic. I think we can avoid furloughs at either side but I don't see a lot of hiring. Some pilots this winter for the summer schedule then a break again. I don't know how you man your long haul but under the Delta contract the 787 if flown in a 50-50 mix of under 12 and over 12 hour flights would require about 27 pilots per airframe or around 480 pilots. The delivery schedule on the aircraft continues to slip. The fall 09 deliveries were based on a first flight in Q2 08. The first flight has yet to happen. The other point is that under NWA business plan not all of the 787's were not growth airframes. There were some retirements and lease returns planned. I did hear that Delta will not cancel the -8 orders until a firm delivery schedule comes out. They think they can get some large penalties out of Boeing and then switch the orders to -9's and 777's near term. Fleet deals with Boeing are always flexible and can change at the drop of a hat.
The DC-9's will be down from 100 at the end of 07 to 61 by the end of 08. All the remaining -30's will be gone in 09. The rest are slated to be gone by 12. There is some confusion on if its the start or end of 12. Different quotes from different managment people.
The 747-200 fleet is more then likely going to go away. The cargo operation is losing a lot of money at the moment. Delta has stated they would like to keep it if they can make it pay its way but they are doubtful about that happening. If they do keep the operation they will still be retiring the 200's in the not to distant future. There is a Cargo conversion available for the 400's so its possible if they keep the operation the 400's could move over there. Delta is also looking at the 777 freighter with possible new orders for the cargo operation if it stays. The economics might be better then converting 400's. This info came from a 4th floor guy a few days ago.
This fall in addition to the nines Delta and NWA will park 757's, MD-88's, A-319's. Looks like around 38 aircraft total from both sides. Hopefully the rumors on the MD-90's will come true to replace some of those near term. The parked aircraft will be stored not retired so could come back however they would all require a HMV to return to the fleet which is not cheap. The aircraft being picked for retirement all have a HMV coming up.

What you posted and i have posted is almost the same info. Except,

The NWA cargo operation supposedly is making money now. And you mentioned DAL may not keep the cargo ops but DAL just put out info that stated they planned on growing Cargo ops by 20-25%.

My 787 info was directly from an internal update current as of a couple days ago. here it is

"The first B787 is still scheduled to arrive in November 2009 with ships 2 and 3 arriving in December 2009. Revenue service currently scheduled to begin in January 2010."

The 747-200s charter pax versions probably arent going anywhere as long as they are doing military charters and the government is paying the gas bills.

I saw the info DAL put out to its check airman about the dc9s and the question is the 30's(20 of them) if fuel goes down i think you will see them still flying, like DAL said they are cheap to own and fly as long as oil doesnt keep going up. The 41 others being around until 2012 is GOOD news, because that gives more time for us to get a replacement at mainline. :)

I think you will see 767s converted to freighters before the 747-400's at least in the near term. Your route guru recently said they cant wait to get the 747-400's in DAL paint and the will likely see routes out of ATL.

With all that said i am sure we can all agree anything is subject to change. Right now it looks like we will need pilots before we need to cut pilots. With the DAL staffing model needed across the board at NWA that will require more pilots, new planes require more pilots or at least maintain pilots in the event of aircraft retirements, pilot retirements and early outs make room for more pilots, and projected growth should require more pilots. We shall see huh? ;)