The 9 day month doesnt last forever. It comes and goes. That said, intl fo lineholder is almost always 12 days or less. Weekends off are doable regardless. But, some trips are longer than a week.

Youre right, we need 777-300s.

Who knows what future growth will be like, past results will not be indicative of our future. However, it has taken my 10 years to go from 5100 to 10200 on our current list (No, I did not reverse those two). to go as a new hire now 13,000-7400 = about 5600 numbers. If I apply 5600 retirements to my current calculator it says I should be 5400 numbers more senior in the year 2024. Not kidding. In an effort for full disclosure, for me to get to approximately #7600 from where I am now, it will be 2021. Five more years, for a grand total of 15 years to get to mid seniority.

Considering there were 16 airframes and now 9, and for a peak month or two in the summer we fly them hard and then the powers that be say"block hours are up for the summer!" yes, there is some thing rotten in Denmark, or at least Georgia. Feels again like warm yellow rain running down our backs while we are being told that it is raining.

Easy, you were under utilizing the airframes. At the road shows flight ops was just a bit upset about the 2017 747 block hour plan. You might have noticed they awarded new bids on the 747 and there may be more to come. They are hurting with only 1 sim.

If, as you said in another post, you don't want to fly international nor move to a Delta base, why on earth would you leave SWA? You lose seniority to become a commuter for what will effectively become a domestic only airline feeding the great Skyteam (is that kinda like the SkyNet from Terminator?).

SWA has good pay rates now, with an amendable contract and one can only hope that the new contract is better. Right now, I'm having a hard time telling anyone who wants to fly international, that Delta is the best airline. United has a lot of WB airframes and has a better growth potential from the retirement perspective (or so I've been told).

The sky is not falling but you might want to ask why we're losing new hires.

Every legacy is losing new hires as they laterally move between airlines.

Well we just orders 65 737-700 to cover the RJ feed and are buying every used 319 we can find!

I think we have had 3 leave so far this year.

I did notice the last AE, one guy does not make a training bonanza. He was just a back fill for Captains that bid off due to sitting reserve for the first time in a 35 year career!

As far as block hour utilization rates, its hard to fly a jet 12 hours to NRT, turn it, and fly 10.5 hours back and get much more out of it. Winter is where the block hours got squirrely, three air frames to fly the Pacific.

We are hurting so badly with one sim, they are leasing our spare time to United! It does limit us to two crews per month though (4 pilots)