That is what the numbers are showing. I wouldn't say that IND has been a junior captain base though. For certain reasons it's more popular than the other large bases. What's crazy is, 70% of the IND captains have 10 years or more of seniority, so they obviously like something about it! It could be stuff like: they like living there, favorable commute options (FDX base), or characteristics that were once favorable, but now the seniority they have is worth more than leaving.

But, it looks like it's trying to get better. The time-to-hold difference between the junior captain 4 months ago, and the junior captain in May, will be almost a year. It's just that the other senior bases have shown greater improvement, so IND has moved down on the list overall.

As fancy as the data looks, it's not predictive beyond the May awards. It could look a lot different when someone upgrades later in the year, next year, and beyond. We can only hope the trends will indicate it'll change for the better.

 

Junior captain awarded Feb 8th is a 3/21/2017 hire. This individual will be a line captain at 2 years 2 months on property.

 

With the airline being somewhat over staffed, are new hires also expected to upgrade in 2.2 years or is it believed that upgrade time is going to increase again I’m the future?

 

No guarantees. This thread is the best we can do. Keep track of how things take shape on the captain side over time, and then hope to upgrade before those trends change for the worse. Unfortunately in a best case scenario that’s still a multi-year process.

If I ran an airline, new hires would be given upgrade eligibility dates the first day of class.

 

Anyone know if it’s still 3+ years to hold anything other than EWR or LGA as a captain?

 

It changes all the time. Heck , PHL is the most junior Captain base right now. So who knows, not something you need to worry about until a few months from upgrading.