Demand dropped 3.5% in Asia compared to a year ago. Oh no, the sky is falling!

Well...sorta. If you are company adding aircraft and crews for business that isn't there...3.5% in Oct was in addition to 11 straight months of total decline. It's down alot more the just 3.5%. Combine that with DHL business model which has a tendency to add multiple cities with one carrier only to change all of to a different carrier after everything is up and running at that location. It can mean alot of parked aircraft and crews on reserve while the expenses mount.

Incorrect. Look at the text closely: "Air cargo demand fell 3.5% in October, the start of the peak season when companies are stocking up inventory for the holiday shopping season, compared with a year ago, marking the 12th consecutive month of declines."

It dropped 3.5% in October... "compared with a year ago." 3.5% is the TOTAL drop from last October. And that's just in Asia, the worst hit sector. The "12th consecutive month of declines" is just stating that September was lower than the previous September and August was lower than the previous August. You don't add up all of those numbers for a cumulative drop in October compared to 12 months ago. 3.5% is that cumulative number from one year ago and it's a slight drop but using "slight drop" in the headline wouldn't get nearly as much attention as the one they used.

MCRN, dba74;
I am also on of the October cancelees.
I have not heard a thing either, given the above quote, that email is not a good sign IMHO, but I am not an insider yet... So it is only my point of view.
I was told (email from the company) that after the end of the year they would start the new hire classes, by now I believe if that was the case, simulator slots should have had to be secured and therefore emails should have been sent to confirm who is really onboard to allocate people for indoc and Sim slots...
All of this tells me the some of us may start in February or March if we start.
Again, I have no inside info, and is my own speculation based on what I gather, I have been down this road before.

As has been mentioned before, air freight is very cyclical and a good indicator of economic health. The letter sent out by Connie recently was not posturing for negotiations, it was just stating the current reality. IMO K4 is where you want to be when the music stops for a while. Business plan is built for these times. We will se these results more in January as C-Net has us occupied right now.
Merry Christmas

Kalitta has their own 747 sims, so if they plan on putting new hires there they don't need to 'book' those slots really.

Understand that part, if they were to start a 74 class in January my take is they would be sending emails in December to see who is still coming.
My opinion is that nobody of us in the “pool” will start before Feb.

You won't be interviewing before January, let alone be given a class date.

I’ve heard rumors that initial training on the 74 is no more. Don’t hold your breath.

Absolutely nothing happens in December because it’s all hands on deck for peak. After Christmas everyone takes a deep breath and then business returns to normal in January. Expect calls/emails then.