You are correct in that a merged CAL/UAL would not hire for some time due to-
1) Possibly 1300+ pilots on the street (if it happened today)
2) UAL's 70 seat RJ feed which would negate the need to call back the furloughees IF-
The new airline did not have some sort of scope protection like CAL has currently.
On the other hand, if a merger is not announced in 2010 then expect to see recalls and hiring this year because-
Since bid 10-02 came out, we have leveled off on our aircraft numbers yet looking at bid 11-02, we show less pilots (4098 v. 4190) yet our fleet numbers are starting to increase. And as Furloughed80 states, we will have an increase in widebodies in 2010 and continued increases in 2011. Plus, in 2011 we start to bring our 737 numbers up to make up for the loss of the 737-300/500's these past 18 months.
The company will continue to manipulate the numbers for Wall Street but the reality is-
we will have more than 4 pilots retire this year.
we will have increased utilization of our current fleet.
we will have added flying, ie charters, mil and new routes.
we will melt down on a few occasions this summer based on current staffing!
At some point, even they will have to realize that.
One thing that still amazes me is that they are playing these games when the cards are in the pilots groups hand (along with maintenance).
If we make no headway this year, we can expect to be released sometime in 2011. Right when the 787's are coming, the economic recovery should be in full swing and best of all...
If we haven't come to an agreement by the summer of 2011 then expect to see chaos while at the same time Delta will be kicking all our collective asses! Star Alliance and Lufty are gonna love that~
Of course, if a merger were announced sometime this year, next year would be a mess but for other reasons...
Oh and one last thing. At some point this year/next year we will see changes in FAR rest regulations. This may change how we use reserves and also affect some of the other scheduling rules. While I would expect a 6-18 month time period for carries to implement the new rules, it should also help us in the long run~
motch