What??

Go and add up the job numbers of the legacies+majors on the APC jobs pages. Then go and add up the regionals. sulkair did it and created threads about it. Those are the actual numbers of jobs that exist currently.

The majors don't have the retirement numbers that the legacies have, but the legacy retirements in the next 10 years alone exceed the amount of regional jobs out there. Go ahead. Prove me wrong.

Twelve year totals:
Retirements from AAL, UAL, DAL, SWA, FDX, UPS, and Alaska: 25,658
Total active pilots for 21 regional and 6 national airlines: 26,667

The retirees being replaced won't be done so on a 1:1 basis. Plus with the mergers(which you know all about) of conunited and usaairways, there won't be a need for the aggregate.
Where in the world did you get that 60k number? I would love to see your math sheet on that one!

FAR 117 has actually expanded the need for pilots. Double digit percentages. AA wants to hire 600 this year and has no where near that many retirements. US was hiring 300 this year and again, no where that many retirements. Not sure about DAL or UAL, I'm sure they are similar.

JetBlue is fairly easy to get a call from, relatively speaking. Personally, as a commuter F/O I would jump at the chance to go to jetBlue, yet I personally know CAs and F/Os who declined job offers. I can (kinda) see CAs doing it I suppose. They are having issues with retention, they like F/Os over there. It's a great work environment and is a raise for pretty much any commuter F/O, and could be a bridge to where you want to go.

I would certainly want to hang out at a major/national operation over a regional if a legacy didn't pan out. But bases, money, schedules etc all play a role in peoples choices.

Thanks. :)

Loon, you're giving your emotions priority over the data.

Okay, my apologies clamp. I eat crow on this one. I read your post that you were saying that there would be 60k AVAILABLE positions. My bad.
BUT, I still don't believe(and never will) of a shortage at the legacy level.

FAR 117 has not changed the required pilots at most mainline carriers. If anything, it has reduced the need for pilots. Thanks to the 2 hour extensions and not including post flight in the flight duty periods, we can now work longer than before. FAR 117 is a step back in fatigue limits.

is this another pending pilot shortage thread ?