I have been told that for perhaps the first time ever flight ops refused marketings summer block hour plan because we did not have enough pilots. It was reduced as a result. Airframes don't seem to be an issue.

I highly doubt that. The pilot group could easily cover 15% more flying than last year if handsomely paid to do so. But, you knew that.

There is no way we could do that. The contract limits the company. FAR 117 further limits the company. They were basically maxed out last summer. 15 percent more this summer with 117 is a non starter.

Aren't you the same sailingfun that's been telling us we've been fat for the last few years, in the context of discussing hiring?

BTW, loved the B-scale comment. That was a classic!

Thanks, Bill Lumberg...

I wonder why they waited to hire? Perhaps they were hoping for something more with Alaska and when that fell through they needed the extra staffing sooner than later? But there has not been a pilot buildup out west yet flight attendants talk about positions opening in SEA all the time. Lots of conflicting information out there. The dynamics between less Alaska codeshare, build up of SEA (at some point and exactly when), 717 and 737 deliveries that cannot fit in NYC and ATL and putting newhires on a plane that is supposed to be reduced 25% after June is perplexing. Perhaps no other place to put them? I have been one or two steps ahead of this thing all along but now I cannot say as much. It's almost like we stopped retreating and went for a full frontal assault in a very short period of time.

Can any of the ALPA guys come out and say this was plan A all along? Did you know this much detail with regard to Alaska and SEA?

I stated we were overstaffed for FO's by at least 400 pilots when the contract was signed. I have also stated many times that overage is now gone. Growth is a good thing. The forum however stated we would be furloughing pilots last fall because of the thousands of jobs lost with the new contract. Crew planning still for unknown reasons seems unaware of that forum fact.

You are way overthinking things. Flight ops wanted to hire 100 to 150 pilots last winter. The company froze hiring because they stated a first quarter profit was more important.
Marketing gives them a long term forecast that guides hiring. They hired according to that forecast. Marketing has revised the block hour plan up several times. The last update comes to late to staff. They added a extra class in April but that is the last class online for the summer. They also put out the extra bid closing now to staff for some of the increase. The rest they had to say No Mas.
Summer will be interesting!

I'll have to agree that it would be foolish for the "the forum" to have predicted furloughs, but I'm not the forum, just a poster, and I seem to recall the controversy was over hiring, when SD wrote to us in 2012 we were likely to start hiring at the end of that year.

Which put you in a position to describe (logically) that we were actually gradually absorbing a surplus. Looks like we're getting close, but still few or no WB A positions, so a little way to go there.

Now, Flamer is sort of hit-and-miss on making sense, and +15% seems implausible. But it seems equally weird that we swung so hard into growth mode, that Flt Ops refused the schedule. I don't think Marketing would be allowed to flex capacity up more than GDP + 1 or 2%.

So... Last year we were fat except in NB B's, but now we can't flex up maybe 3-5%? Maybe you can be a little more specific about how much flying was taken off the table.