Luckily superior job protection measures were negotiated by the MEC which prevented furloughs during the recession. A consequence was that the airline was over staffed. As the growth aircraft came into service Delta was able to offer recalls and start hiring, which was not occurring prior to C2012. It took sometime to start hiring. The MEC T&G didn't predict an immediate staffing impact, but without question the mainline is now growing and pilots are being hired as a result of the scope recapture of 2012.

The mainline is growing, 100s of pilots are upgrading to new captain positions, thousands are moving up in their respective categories or moving to categories they'd rather be in and we are hiring 100s of pilots this year as a result of C2012 recapturing more Delta flying for Delta pilots. Have a great day.

How many age 65 retirements in 2014? How many new hires? How many pilots required in 2013, how many in 2014?

The company is growing, thanks to C2012 capturing more Delta flying for Delta pilots and accelerating the retirement of hundreds of 50 seat RJs that were locked into extended contracts.

Delta SEC statements have attributed the upgauging of the fleet to C2012.

Ridiculous. Clearly C2012 was cost neutral. Management said so!!!(tic)(severe sarcasm)

I know some guys that wish they had....

Sounds about right. Remember that we were overstaffed in 2012. I'm just quoting what the PWA required for staffing, given the block hours being flown.

I don't know about that, C2012 didn't break any extended contracts with anyone. Pinnacle went bankrupt, which voided our ASA, and some of our 9E planes went to Skywest to exchange for 50 seaters. The ONLY thing contract 2012 did was make Pinnacle viable again. However, now 9E is crumbling, so the correct statement is: Market forces are forcing management to grow mainline.

Well, if you went back to January 2013 you had 10,568 pilots flying the line and 4,738 Captains. In July 2014 it's 10,736 and 5,007.

With 498 new hires and I forget how many recalls (130?) was the net total, you've had an increase in 168 pilots overall and an increase of 269 Captains.

I guess the numbers are the same just with the minor difference of taking into account those no longer flying the line. But I am glad to know that if I gave you $10 bucks and took $5 away, you'd think I gave you $10.

Did we become more overstaffed after mid 2012?

Would we ever really know?

The Company is growing thanks to 900s and 330s that were coming anyway, and 717s that might or might not have come anyway had C2012 not happened. We are hiring because we need more pilots to fly that growth,to replace those who are retiring, because C2012 does not seem to have saved much (if anything) in pilots required, and because FAR 117 increased pilots required.