Nice to meet you yesterday.

Same to you! Good times!

Hmmm. That's actually less than we were told in the past (which was 250 this year, 600 next). Any other Intel?

Explosive growth right around the corner?

Zap,
Not terribly surprising as they kept the advertised numbers low last year as well and then hired a bunch. I have heard everything from 80-900. Hopefully it falls somewhere in that range. Plenty of rumors flying around right now. I am at the schoolhouse in a couple of weeks, I will share whatever I hear there.

I was told a few days ago that people were not showing up to Southwest pilot new hire classes and some were only half full. Evidently, these folks ended up getting hired by a legacy and didn't show up. Any truth to this? It seems very plausible given the fact that the legacies are soaring, the pay is higher than its ever been, plus movement up the list is lightning quick, unlike Southwest where the movement is stagnant, pay is less, and no opportunity for international widebody flying. I guess Southwest isn't the holy grail of pilot jobs like it used to be. What a difference a few years makes.

Has Southwest been running new hire classes?

No they haven't..

Southwest candidates,

Please take Texaspilot76 posts with a grain of salt. I've followed his posts over the years and know indivuduals who know him personally at US/AA. Ignore and move on. Remember, he's the one who initially started this thread. It's truly unfortunate.

On that note, congratulations to the the applicants getting invites. We've had fun prepping some of you and it's nice to see Southwest hiring again. You'll be working for a fantastic company with a great pilot group with some of the best work rules in the business.

This industry is constantly changing. What's good now, means nothing. Southwest has never laid a pilot off and treats their people with respect, mostly. I'd also be willing to bet most 4-5 year FO's there make more than most wide body FO's at AA, same with CA's.

If Southwest is your goal, keep pushing for it. You're time will come with hard work and determination.

Centerline Interview Consulting

Excellent post by an informed professional pilot. Is Southwest perfect, absolutely not. Just like any airline, there are good things and not so good things about working here. We do have some pretty nice work rules and our history is fairly remarkable in some respects. Granted things can and will change in the future, but anyone who wants to work here can probably be pretty certain they will have a well paying and secure job with some good people. Good luck to everyone applying and interviewing. We'd love to have you come join us.


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