The above post is what I have been told to. Of course this can all change, but as of now, it will still be somewhere above 500 pilots for the year. Probably more than that.
I think that this is a temporary thing for DAL. It is not seen as permanent. We aim to go 50/50 on international and domestic. That means a lot more blue suits will come through the door. That is todays five year plan, not tomorrows. Nothing is a guarantee, but it is a lot better than the press is making this out to be. It is a necessary cut so that we do not loose billions like we did after the summer of 01. They are realizing the problem at least six months before they did last time. Dal still states that we may make money this year(We will see about that)
I truly cannot see DAL getting rid of 757's and 7ER as some posts have said. Maybe off of the domestic market, but I cannot see selling them. Park yes, but those are the airframes that we have built this business plan on.
Of further note, we are buying all of our recurrent sim time from UAL in DEN. It sucks, but with all of the new hires going to the ER there is not time in ATL. A two to three month hiatus in hiring will allow them to get rid of that bulge. It costs a lot to do training out of our complex. This also reduces costs.
If anything changes, I am sure that we will know, but for now, not much except there may not be 800 new hires this year.
Lets hope that they do not readjust this number again.

Absolutely, a point well taken. We better not forget this fact since we did buy the remnants of Pan Am as they were folding.

Our domestic feed is strong...everywhere except JFK. It isn't bad because of local outbound demand, but I'm guessing you will see us increase our domestic gauge into JFK sooner or later.

I did much better than Greyhound.

Call me a Pollyanna, but I do believe the press (and the naysayers on these forums) are overreacting for drama's sake.

The international plan is sound--if dollars are weak, then sell more tickets in foreign currency. Brilliant.

I'm not an expert, but most legacies slow hiring in the summer anyway so their sim instructors can fly the busy line, I think.

SWA??? ;)

Why? Is that where you wanted to go?

I would not go there right now either. This whole industry sucks.

JetPiedmont,
If thats the case then it sounds like you would also like DAL. After flying all over Europe and Asia for 12 years in the military I also enjoy domestic flying which is why I bid it. If I feel like flying International in a few years, I will bid that. Except for new hire getting the 767ER out of initial no one is forced to fly those routes. Although I assume your post was TIC, a lot of what you say is true and a lot of pilots do not want to fly to those places - but a lot do. That is the beauty of it all - as a new hire you can bid anything from MD-88 to international 767ER - options are good. :):) This can all change on a dime so lets all hope for the best. Scoop

That's the same reason I chose UPS and never applied to the domestic airlines like SWA, AirTran and Jetblue. The Legacy and cargo airlines have far better variety in the flying that they do. I would have like to have flown for Delta, but I was looking for more stability in my career.

I just wanted to say that those new hires who had no choice and got the 767ER - they were able to bid into any aircraft except the B777 2-3 months after starting class. So no one is locked into something they didn't want.