Pilot Hiring 2025

[Canadianpilot2024]

From a recent ALPA email:

With 18 new hires joining our ranks in this class, our pilot group now stands over 5800 pilots strong. We expect another 32 pilots to join us at Air Canada before the end of the year.

[wing'd]

Odd questions

Is there even any ground school in December ? With the holidays and all


Anyone know the calls to non jazz candidates for January roll out in December or earlier ?

[7up]

Odd questions

Is there even any ground school in December ? With the holidays and all


Anyone know the calls to non jazz candidates for January roll out in December or earlier ?

From what i heard, there is no ground school this December. Ground schools are filled until next Feb. They are expecting to hire about 290 pilots in 2026.

[Dry Guy]

They are expecting to hire about 290 pilots in 2026.

Very cool. That should put us up to around 6000 pilots. Unreal.

[wing'd]

Odd questions

Is there even any ground school in December ? With the holidays and all


Anyone know the calls to non jazz candidates for January roll out in December or earlier ?

From what i heard, there is no ground school this December. Ground schools are filled until next Feb. They are expecting to hire about 290 pilots in 2026.

Thanks for the info!

Any idea if they have been called ?

[Hysteria]

Is the idea to sort of get to 7000 pilots by 2030? Or Is that just a rumour

[Canadianpilot2024]

7000 pilots by the end of our current contract was also a rumour. Just to fulfill dbm and vacation requirements amongst other things

[LongBranch]

I know for a fact that the company has not yet hired for the increase in min hours for vacation blocks coming at the end of this contract (2027). The rumour I heard that the number is around 500 extra pilots need in addition to retirement &growth so 6500 total but the end of 2027, so take what you want from that.

[squawk2me]

What’s the norm for getting a call for groundschool date if you were successful in the interview process? If classes are full until Feb would people expect to hear in January?

[bobcatdriver]

From a recent ALPA email:

With 18 new hires joining our ranks in this class, our pilot group now stands over 5800 pilots strong. We expect another 32 pilots to join us at Air Canada before the end of the year.

Speculating there will be layoffs going into the new contract and sudden retirements of some older WB types.

Hope this doesn’t age well…

[truedude]

From a recent ALPA email:

With 18 new hires joining our ranks in this class, our pilot group now stands over 5800 pilots strong. We expect another 32 pilots to join us at Air Canada before the end of the year.

Speculating there will be layoffs going into the new contract and sudden retirements of some older WB types.

Hope this doesn’t age well…

That is dumb. If you listened to the earnings call yesterday, there will be a net increase in airplanes. And with retirements still fairly high each year, even serious reduction in flying can be mitigated through attrition. Where do people even come up with this garbage

[3rdWorldClassPilot]

From a recent ALPA email:

With 18 new hires joining our ranks in this class, our pilot group now stands over 5800 pilots strong. We expect another 32 pilots to join us at Air Canada before the end of the year.

Speculating there will be layoffs going into the new contract and sudden retirements of some older WB types.

Hope this doesn’t age well…

Get off CNN dude and give pilot to pilot a call...sounds like you need some mental help

[Canadianpilot2024]

They did announce a reduction from 18 787-10’s down to 14 in the Q3 meeting the other day.

They also mentioned they’d be looking at submitting new orders by ~2030 when the 777/330 start ageing out. Which would take ~5 years to be delivered.

They also said they’d have options on more planes that they could use depending on how things look down the road.

Sounds like the music has slowed. If you’re coming to AC now and planning on upgrading it will be a while…

[Dias]

Are they looking at getting the 777X at all?

[7up]

The calls will be sent out next week for Jan and Feb classes. Jan Feb classes are almost filled. They are projecting 290 new hires in 2026 and 400 afterwards.

[Flathead05]

The calls will be sent out next week for Jan and Feb classes. Jan Feb classes are almost filled. They are projecting 290 new hires in 2026 and 400 afterwards.

How do you know this?

[Darleck8]

The calls will be sent out next week for Jan and Feb classes. Jan Feb classes are almost filled. They are projecting 290 new hires in 2026 and 400 afterwards.

How do you know this?

Has anyone on here actually been contacted for January or February classes?

[white_on_red]

I interviewed in June. All steps complete, no call yet.

[flying4dollars]

The calls will be sent out next week for Jan and Feb classes. Jan Feb classes are almost filled. They are projecting 290 new hires in 2026 and 400 afterwards.

How do you know this?

I was at flt ops building yesterday (where interviews are conduction) and it was confirmed 400 planned new hires for next year. 20 classes of about 20 per class is what's planned. So roughly 2 classes per month with a slow down to 1 class in the summer months. Keep in mind this is planned vs actual. As always with everything in life; subject to change.

Yes hiring has slowed since the flood gates in 2022-2023, but it is still ongoing. As someone previously mentioned, you should not come here with dreams of a quick upgrade. Still, it will be faster than WJ and maybe Transat (?), but you will be waiting a while. My guess? 5 years+ currently, but that's a pure guess based on the the most junior captain and the forecasted fleet growth, which isn't as significant as the order books show. We still have to retire some old Airbus (320/330) and soon Boeing (777).

[7up]

Yes the projection for hiring next year is reduced to 290 because of the delivery delays and it will resume 400 hiring thereafter.

[thepoors]

The 777 is not going anywhere, most of them are less than 20 years old which is young by AC standards. They have nothing that can match its range and capacity (787-10 included) and they have nothing in the way of a replacement. Because AC management is borderline r*tarded and runs the company in a purely reactive fashion, they didn't put in any orders during covid when they could've gotten deals on WB aircraft. Now they are scrambling but don't have any realistic options for the next decade.

You know how AC has a history of operating the some of the oldest fleet types in the world (320, 767, 330)? That trend will almost certainly continue with the 777.

[flying4dollars]

The 777 is not going anywhere, most of them are less than 20 years old which is young by AC standards. They have nothing that can match its range and capacity (787-10 included) and they have nothing in the way of a replacement. Because AC management is borderline r*tarded and runs the company in a purely reactive fashion, they didn't put in any orders during covid when they could've gotten deals on WB aircraft. Now they are scrambling but don't have any realistic options for the next decade.

You know how AC has a history of operating the some of the oldest fleet types in the world (320, 767, 330)? That trend will almost certainly continue with the 777.

Yeah I didn't mean in the immediate future but the point was that with all these orders we have in, people tend to forget that's not pure growth and a/c will be retired as well so that of course will factor into hiring forecasts. But a big +1 on the lack of future planning and being a very reactive than proactive company, that's pretty spot on

[Canadianpilot2024]

Air Canada Upgrade Forecast (Seniority 5800)
Assuming ~400 seniority moves per year

100-150 retirements
Seniority #5800/5800

28 airbus 220
15 321xlr (30 delivery’s/half will be replacements)
5 737 (lynx fins could be swapped out for new 737s)
14 787-10

• Capt 220 (YYZ): ~2.62 years
• FO 777 (YYZ): ~2.66 years
• FO 787 (YVR): ~2.81 years
• FO 787 (YYZ): ~3.00 years
• FO 787 (YUL): ~3.21 years
• FO 777 (YUL): ~3.59 years
• Capt 737 (YYZ): ~3.65 years
• Capt 319 (YYZ): ~3.92 years
• Capt 220 (YUL): ~4.12 years
• Capt 737 (YUL): ~4.06 years
• Capt 320 (YYZ): ~4.30 years
• FO 777 (YVR): ~4.57 years
• Capt 220 (YVR): ~4.84 years
• Capt 320 (YUL): ~4.76 years
• Capt 320 (YVR): ~5.25 years
• Capt 737 (YVR): ~5.74 years
• Capt 330 (YUL): ~9.11 years
• Capt 330 (YYZ): ~10.14 years
• Capt 787 (YUL): ~10.78 years
• Capt 787 (YYZ): ~10.92 years
• Capt 787 (YVR): ~11.37 years
• Capt 777 (YUL): ~11.07 years
• Capt 777 (YYZ): ~11.64 years
• Capt 777 (YVR): ~12.45 years

Does this seem accurate? Fabricated by ChatGPT.

[Me262]

Forecasts in aviation is like weather. Shouldn't look past 2-3 years (2-3 days for weather). The next COVID, recession, boom is right around the corner.

[thepoors]

The 777 is not going anywhere, most of them are less than 20 years old which is young by AC standards. They have nothing that can match its range and capacity (787-10 included) and they have nothing in the way of a replacement. Because AC management is borderline r*tarded and runs the company in a purely reactive fashion, they didn't put in any orders during covid when they could've gotten deals on WB aircraft. Now they are scrambling but don't have any realistic options for the next decade.

You know how AC has a history of operating the some of the oldest fleet types in the world (320, 767, 330)? That trend will almost certainly continue with the 777.

Yeah I didn't mean in the immediate future but the point was that with all these orders we have in, people tend to forget that's not pure growth and a/c will be retired as well so that of course will factor into hiring forecasts. But a big +1 on the lack of future planning and being a very reactive than proactive company, that's pretty spot on

When I said borderline, I was being generous...