Could a new hire FO on the CRJ be upgraded to the LHS in less than 2.5 years if he/she had over 1400 hours turbine SIC in part 121 ops from a previous airline?

Has there been any precedences for such in the recent past?

We have had in the past on the Brasilia. But now , expect 3 years or so

We haven't done any of that yet to my knowledge.
I don't think we would be in a position that we need to hire DEC for a while. I would be interested to hear what others say though.

Generally speaking, people are not getting bypassed for upgrade due to lack of time. There are exceptions, @ElMetal upgraded one month earlier because a guy ahead of him didn't have the time but that was an exceptional case (Leave of absence kind of situation).

It is possible, how likely is another question. Our upgrade time is 2.5 years right now, I think it'll drop to two but it's hard to say what the future holds.

If you meet the requirements you can upgrade as soonas your seniority allows. I upgraded in just over a year.

Well, VX better start hiring again, and UA's hiring is nearly done for the year... so I don't think we'll see any further drops in upgrade time for a while, if at all.

Plus, we've been hiring like crazy from Dec. 2013 onwards. Given the sheer amount of FOs with 1--2 years in property, I can't imagine upgrade time dropping further. I can imagine it going back up next year. But as you said, who really knows?

Thanks for all your replies.

Now this is purely a hypothetical question which could apply to any seniority based airline. I'm not suggesting that we're in this situation, but just say there is an immediate vacancy for an FO to upgrade to Captain. The last person to upgrade had a seniority number of 500. FO 'A' has a seniority number of 501 but has not yet met the upgrade requirements. FO 'B' on the other hand has met the requirements but has a seniority number of 521. The 20 FOs ahead of him/her are also yet to meet the requirements for upgrade.

So what would happen in this case? Would FO 'B' be offered to upgrade due to the urgent need of the company for a Captain or would the company wait until FO 'A' has met the upgrade requirements even if this meant parking airplanes for the next 6 months?

FO B would upgrade. As the other FOs get their time and upgrade, FO B would stay junior. This is happening at several regionals right now.

VHDSJ your scenario is possible. More likely though are the 100s of FOs that will not want to go to a junior domicile such as DTW or MSP. The junior SkyWest captain has well over 500 First Officers that are senior to him.