Upgrade times in the future?
 

Can anyone give me a fair estimation how upgrades will be affected in the future with the LAX base, Hawaii, growth, new order deliveries, and eventually retirements? They should go down right?

No.
And there isn't much growth.

Wow, nice outburst.
Expect upgrade times to go down for LAX base. Its going to be 400 pilots. Not a lot of commuters from the LA area. Also Hawaii lines do not seem like something to flight over. Yes there is decent growth over the next 2 years for airframes and expect SWA to pounce on twoish airlines when this recession hits.

Upgrade will finally come down to about 15 years from current 25. Exciting times! :D

I started 15 months ago. There are over 1000 below me on the seniority list.

Outburst?? What? What I said was pretty simply stated.
There is some growth over the next few years, but there is also a lot of replacing old airframes. The net growth isn’t near as much as some other airlines. I’m certainly not saying it’s a bad place to be, as it is my dream job, but I’m realistic. As to having 1000 pilots blow you, congratulations! The airline is also very overstaffed. Overstaffed does not equal growth.

So how many airframes will be replaced in the coming years? You seem to have the information

I don’t have all the information. And I’m not saying that I do. I’m going off percentages of growth that have been stater on this forum and by Southwest recruiters and management at the in-house job fair. Expect 3%.

So it can’t go up....it should go down right?

If it goes up, that means it is a bad place to be.

It’ll go down for the period we hired minimally for 2-3 years. Retirements here are low but growth is relatively good and the potential for growth is also good. Adding Hawaii alone will cause growth of 500 pilots. Now if we go more to South America as planned and maybe one day Canada it really adds to growth. I’ve given up on another fleet type but who knows.