Jetblue hiring
 

Just curious, I see many threads on Jetblue interviews/hiring. How is it they can be hiring so many when they're not really growing that much? Attrition/retirements? Increased block hours?

Have they been consistently hiring since they started up in 2000? and how many pilots are they up to now?

Thx... 73

Looks like they're @2500 roughly.

Looking at a report they'll receive 4 320's, 3 321's, plus a handfull of 190's. Similar setup for 2014.

It has been relatively steady growth of aircraft/block hours over the past few years. They had big hiring binges in the early years, but have leveled off at about 100-200/yr recently. Almost no retirements to speak of for the next decade (roughly 100 total), and attrition is mainly at the bottom of the seniority list. We will probably see some guys head back to places like AA/DAL when the recall rights are almost up. 7 Airbii and 7 E190s for 2013 deliveries.

Do you think if you ask this question on enough boards you'll eventually get the answer you want?

The short answer is, because mgmt decided to hire.

Wow, seriously?

Dick move.

14 growth airplanes this year. I wish there was a lot of attrition, I am not seeing more than a trickle on the seniority list.

And you call the pro-union crowd hostile?

This is correct, with new hire class B6 is probably past the 2500 mark now. 200+ Hires this year, in March alone I think it was an 8.6% Traffic increase on 7.5% capacity increase, so passenger demand is outpacing capacity increases.

This is the problem with the Gloopy's of the world who predict an easy acquisition of B6 by SWA or AA. B6 is now almost twice the size of Alaska and AirTran, 4 times the size of Hawaiian. Not to mention financially healthy and profitable. Not an easy acquisition. Not saying it won't ever happen, however more likely a merger.

You are partly correct, but remember our total market capitalization is half of Alaska. Now that is mostly due to a mature route network with low competition on some routes and mature profits throughout most of Alaska's network.

In contrast, a much higher percentage of our system is in new(er) routes that haven't fully matured yet. Also our stock price would increase if someone began to try a jb acquisition, which would raise our market cap noticeably .