AA Pilot Retirement Facts: from the APA e-mail blast Aug 5, 2011

Over the last two months, more than 70 pilots have chosen to retire prior to the mandatory retirement age of 65. Over the next five years, more than 700 pilots will reach the mandatory retirement age of 65. Over the next five years, nearly 1,900 more pilots will reach age 60 (full retirement benefits age). By the end of 2020, more than 2,300 pilots will have reached the mandatory retirement age of 65. By the end of 2020, more than 4,400 pilots will have reached age 60.

Latest recall progress
 

10 Aug class of 18 received a mix - STL 80/767, MIA 76D/73I
24 Aug closed with 24
7 Sep closed with 13
21 Sep class is pending, expecting 18
5 & 19 Oct classes announced
Expect classes to continue 2/month with a 'rolling average' class size of 18, including Nov & Dec.

Junior red (TWA) pilot to be offered recall 9 Nov class.
Then a mix of AE pilots with seniority # and blue (AA) pilots.
Junior furloughed pilot projected to be offered recall March 2012.
Remainder of AE pilots with seniority # offered classes thru July '12
New hires with mix of AE pilots begins.
Disclaimer: This projection is as firm as molten jello.

The math:

• latest acceptance rate ~ 20%
• number of previous deferred now returning is variable
• MLOA number is variable
• projection quality has improved since furloughed pilot telethon

Wanna keep up with the latest? Click HERE.

Thought there was a push to get class sizes increased. Something like 60 a month?

Are you sure about the October classes being official? Just curious as to the source.

Mink--I may be wrong, but yes they would like to increase the class sizes (I don't know about the 60 number you state), however, they're having trouble getting enough furloughees to return in time for the class date. It takes time to contact all those people by letter/phone, wait up to 21 days for a reply and then get them in the next available class. I'm thinking there is trouble getting people to respond in time, and when they do with a "defer", it's too late to get someone else in it. Just my .02

Mink,

The statement was "they're hiring as many as they can as fast as they can. Ultimately the limit, as currently structured, would be about 60(65?)." (paraphrased) That number was just an educated guess.

The lead time to get spun up, from what I've been told, is measured in months, not weeks. Throw in the 17 months until the A320 shows up, along with a potential(hopefully!) training bubble developing, and they probably need 30 hrs in a day to stay afloat.

They've been claiming they want to put more through training, but they can't because they're hamstrung by a lack of check airman, sim time, etc........but they've been claiming that since the AE flow's started coming over in January (8.5 months ago).

After that period of time, they could have easily ramped up monthly classes to at least 60 if they wanted or needed to. They're training exactly as many as they WANT to train, 35-40/month and until they feel they want to train more for whatever reason, it will stay that way.

They know EXACTLY what they are doing.

eaglefly - perhaps, but they also didn't expect to order aircraft from Boeing AND Airbus, which might have really complicated some of the issues they're dealing with.

I wouldn't give them too much credit for knowing "exactly" what they're doing all the time. In any organization outside events, or decisions higher up the food chain, force the folks lower down the list to scramble.

CA Hale made it obvious that they're scrambling to get organized for the a/c deliveries, especially implemented a new fleet with 17 months lead time. He said some events got pushed up by a year. They can't respond to that within a matter of weeks.

Question - how long does STL have to remain a certain percentage size of ORD? How does ORD look for the future of American? I have heard it has shrunk in size a little bit
Thanks

Will someone explain to me how they come up with a 20% acceptance rate. Looking at the numbers provided from the above link I see:
Total recalled - 1021
Total Deferring - 812
= 1832 pilots offered a recall

Therefore, I come up with a 55.7% acceptance rate (1021/1832).
Someone help me out...