Man, that hook is catching some bites!

The slide said 2000+

Keep in mind that at a presentation last year this time United hiring had a slide of estimate hiring that was around 900 pilots for 2026 and someone took a picture of it and posted it online. United is on track to hire around 1,600 this year, which is close to double what they estimated at the beginning of the year. A lot of this was because of 48 MAX-9s that they added to the 2026 order book, plus a bunch of 2030 orders on the NEO that had 2026 production slots open up from other carriers deferring their orders to 2030. This all happened this summer (July or so) and this is why the ramp up of hiring. Also with 2 787s a month coming starting in 2026, that's going to cause a lot of hiring since those require more pilots to fly them. Also 450+ retirements in 2026 peaking at 750 in 2028 and then 600-700 for a few years after that.

Total deliveries in 2026 is now 128 planes, which would be like adding a Spirit (post BK), Allegiant or Frontier airlines in just one year. 21 of those are WB planes too. None of this counts deliveries between now and the end of the year.

It looks like this could be the biggest hiring wave ever, including more than the post covid wave, since we not only have more retirements, but we have far more planes being delivered. There are still another 500 planes to be delivered from 2027 - 2030 including another 120 787s.

2,000 would be a low estimate for 2026, and I'm not sure they can staff 128 new planes plus 450 retirements with only 2,000 hires.

How many of those are for growth vs replacement? Or is this a “add now, phase older aircraft later as we bring more in” kind of thing? I’m sure the play here is in utilizing the flexibility of large retirement numbers and aging aircraft to ward off threat of furloughs should things tank in the future. Pretty smart.

We will have taken 80 new planes in 2025 and only parked 20 (older Airbus planes) growing by 60 planes net. I expect the same for 2026, except the WB planes are all growth since the 767s aren't going to be parked until after 2030.

Somehow we are going to have 1,400 mainline planes and 28,000 pilots by 2030 so by far most of the deliveries are for growth and the replacements are all upgauging from smaller planes. All of this was just repeated at the fall standards meeting.

Yes, they talked a similar talk in a recent video I saw. I’m stoked to join and can’t wait to get my class date. Feel incredibly lucky. Just praying everything works out, and that we don’t hit rock bottom in a few years.

see you guys soon.

Considering they were getting a plane every days in 2024 for about 120 and allegedly it’s right around the corner in 2026 now, they’re probably hesitant to park planes immediately due to the unreliable partnerships that they maintain with the aircraft manufacturers. Allegedly draw down of the baby buses and 756 over the next five years or so as suitable 321 and 787 replacements are available. UAL is still short something like 21 787s to cover the international network today but they’re being saved by closed airspace.

Exact message being told at TK.

In Unity...

October interviews being offered 12/9 class. Will likely be the last class in 2025.

congrats! That will put you in the pool for any profit sharing for 2026.

Is there a list of class dates for 2026?