It ought to pick up after the summer when the majors step up their new hire training.

In my class at Southwest, out of 28 new pilots, 1/3 were from XJT or SKYW. (3 XJT, 6 SKYW). Most of the instructors would say: "raise your hand if your from SKW" since they get so many in each class.

SWA likes XJT/SKYW guys. I think SWA will continue to pull from inc. throughout the year.

Are there really no leaks as to what the pay package entails?!? I figured someone would elude to something without explicitly violating the NDA.

RJ runs a tight ship!

prepare to be underwhelmed.... followed by some artificial pressure from SAPA along the lines of

"... we are leaving millions on the table by not voting in this [abysmal] raise right now. Who knows if/when the company will come back again"

The key will be to resist any scare tactics and at least see what the next offer will be. I seriously doubt that they have no plan B and C before the go nuclear.

4588 pilots on the seniority list today. That is a decrease from a high of 4670..ish, I think in Jan/Feb. I haven't seen attrition like that since I have been here. No getting to the west coast without descent time through ATL etc. East coast Regional's pay better. SGU better pony up some cash or they might be in trouble. CRJ community is already stretched thin.
Bowl

What was presented to reps, was turned down so you can imagine it wasn’t the best

Yes, April is going to be ugly. Will need some classes of 50+ a week to stem the tide and bulk up for summer schedule!
Maybe some kind of retention program is in the works?

Retention? They might be able to retain a few lifers who are on the fence (there are a bunch of them now), but for most of the pilots, looking at 20-30 years at a legacy there's no way SKW could offer enough incentive. When I left they would have had to write me a check for several million to make me stay, and even that wouldn't have been a good idea on my part because money can't buy QOL.