2026 PIT FLEET AC

[Yowdriver]

Good day.

Would like to know if anyone has some sort of information of the Aircrafts as well as the bases offered in both of January classes

Regards.

[JungleRiot]

You wont know what metal youll fly until end of week 2 of GS. 2-3 year upgrades are gone. Youre looking 11-13 years at the current moment.

[streamlineflow]

You wont know what metal youll fly until end of week 2 of GS. 2-3 year upgrades are gone. Youre looking 11-13 years at the current moment.

11-13 years... ?? That's insane.
Are you serious ?
Where did you get that from ?

[rudder]

You wont know what metal youll fly until end of week 2 of GS. 2-3 year upgrades are gone. Youre looking 11-13 years at the current moment.

11-13 years can hold 767 CA or very bottom of 330 CA.

Some previous 2-3 year NB CA upgrades are being reversed due to bumping from Rouge reductions (LCC319).

The new CBA is driving seniority 3+ year bidding to WB FO or NB CA. Typical junior NB upgrade probably going to move out closer to year 4 or 5.

[The Hammer]

AC's growth plans are being hampered by aircraft delivery delays and market changes. 321 NEO's are late and turning into fleet renewals vs growth. AC just added 4 ex-Virgin America (Alaskan) 320's to replace a tired fleet. The 319's aren't young anymore and even the early 321's are starting to show their age.

[Sharklasers]

You wont know what metal youll fly until end of week 2 of GS. 2-3 year upgrades are gone. Youre looking 11-13 years at the current moment.

11-13 years... ?? That's insane.
Are you serious ?
Where did you get that from ?

It’s not accurate but Its from assuming no growth and ~125 mandatory retirements a year for the next 12 years. So you look at the seniority of the junior pilot in a position and calculate how long it will take you to reach that seniority with 125 retirements per year.
About 5810 pilots on property today so if your hired as 5811 it will take a bit.

Junior Captains per base:
YUL 4176 = 13.4 years
YYZ 4751 = 8.5 years
YWG 2750 = 24 years
YVR 3864 = 15.5 years

Obviously any growth will shorten these numbers and I believe the retirements will accelerate again after 12 years.

[CaptDukeNukem]

You wont know what metal youll fly until end of week 2 of GS. 2-3 year upgrades are gone. Youre looking 11-13 years at the current moment.

11-13 years... ?? That's insane.
Are you serious ?
Where did you get that from ?

It’s not accurate but Its from assuming no growth and ~125 mandatory retirements a year for the next 12 years. So you look at the seniority of the junior pilot in a position and calculate how long it will take you to reach that seniority with 125 retirements per year.
About 5810 pilots on property today so if your hired as 5811 it will take a bit.

Junior Captains per base:
YUL 4176 = 13.4 years
YYZ 4751 = 8.5 years
YWG 2750 = 24 years
YVR 3864 = 15.5 years

Obviously any growth will shorten these numbers and I believe the retirements will accelerate again after 12 years.

Knowing friends that are captains at less than years you’re stating makes me believe your calculations are slightly in need of a computer or a whiz wheel.

You can’t base upgrades solely on retirements.

[Sharklasers]

11-13 years... ?? That's insane.
Are you serious ?
Where did you get that from ?

It’s not accurate but Its from assuming no growth and ~125 mandatory retirements a year for the next 12 years. So you look at the seniority of the junior pilot in a position and calculate how long it will take you to reach that seniority with 125 retirements per year.
About 5810 pilots on property today so if your hired as 5811 it will take a bit.

Junior Captains per base:
YUL 4176 = 13.4 years
YYZ 4751 = 8.5 years
YWG 2750 = 24 years
YVR 3864 = 15.5 years

Obviously any growth will shorten these numbers and I believe the retirements will accelerate again after 12 years.

Knowing friends that are captains at less than years you’re stating makes me believe your calculations are slightly in need of a computer.

You can’t base upgrades solely on retirements.

I am not stating it’s accurate. I include that growth will shorten these numbers timeline. I’m simply demonstrating how these numbers were derived. Also it doesn’t matter to seniority number 5811 how long it took your friends to upgrade if they were hired at seniority number 3500, 4000, 4500, 5000 ect. This is purely a going forward look at mandatory retirements vs pilots on property between you and the seat you want. There is a little over 1000 pilots between someone hired tomorrow and the dead last captain in the company, IF there is no growth and the only factor that moves you closer to the left seat is retirements it will take a bit. Suffice to say unless we hit another massive wave of growth and hiring it will take longer in the future to get to the left seat than those of us who were hired when the airline was much smaller.

[rudder]

It’s not accurate but Its from assuming no growth and ~125 mandatory retirements a year for the next 12 years. So you look at the seniority of the junior pilot in a position and calculate how long it will take you to reach that seniority with 125 retirements per year.
About 5810 pilots on property today so if your hired as 5811 it will take a bit.

Junior Captains per base:
YUL 4176 = 13.4 years
YYZ 4751 = 8.5 years
YWG 2750 = 24 years
YVR 3864 = 15.5 years

Obviously any growth will shorten these numbers and I believe the retirements will accelerate again after 12 years.

Knowing friends that are captains at less than years you’re stating makes me believe your calculations are slightly in need of a computer.

You can’t base upgrades solely on retirements.

I am not stating it’s accurate. I include that growth will shorten these numbers timeline. I’m simply demonstrating how these numbers were derived. Also it doesn’t matter to seniority number 5811 how long it took your friends to upgrade if they were hired at seniority number 3500, 4000, 4500, 5000 ect. This is purely a going forward look at mandatory retirements vs pilots on property between you and the seat you want. There is a little over 1000 pilots between someone hired tomorrow and the dead last captain in the company, IF there is no growth and the only factor that moves you closer to the left seat is retirements it will take a bit. Suffice to say unless we hit another massive wave of growth and hiring it will take longer in the future to get to the left seat than those of us who were hired when the airline was much smaller.

The reality is that the junior CA holds that position because many pilots more senior did not want it. Possibly due to base. Possibly due to equipment. Possibly due to schedule/vacation.

AC has a system where at a certain seniority and tenure a pilot can choose $250k in the right seat of a WB or $320k in the left seat of a NB. After tax, that extra $70k on the T4 (closer to $33k after tax and deductions) won’t make much difference in day-to-day life but the improvement to schedule may have significant benefits in QOL. It is evident from the bid award results that this preference manifests itself for many AC pilots.

I cannot recall if it was prior to or after COVID, but at one point DL actually awarded an NYC NB CA position to a new-hire. That meant 15000+ pilots more senior did not want that position.

Due to the still deficient 1-4 year FO/RP pay rates, there will likely be continued demand for junior pilots to bid NB CA strictly for economic reasons. But you will either need to reside on base or get a crash pad because it will be RSV for a long time and pilots will parachute in ahead of you as their seniority allows them to hold a desirable relative seniority on the respective CA roster. This reality keeps many pilots in the right seat (either NB or WB).

There was a time at AC when it was 17 years to junior NB CA (1979 DOH). Those same pilots retired as 777 CA. Recent history has pilots holding NB CA with as little as 12-18 months of service. Will that repeat itself? Without a dramatic growth wave, probably not. But things won’t revert to 11-13 years to the left seat which is pretty well where WJ finds itself with a (mostly) single fleet type.

It has always been the case that the gap between DOB and DOH will be the best determinant of career earnings potential at AC. The lesser the gap the less of an issue it is to upgrade at the earliest available opportunity. So the demographic most likely to be pursuing the earliest upgrade opportunity is the older new-hire pilot desiring to increase total earnings and maximize pension benefit accrual with less years remaining in their career to do so. That pilot hired today likely will not see that opportunity in less than 5-7 years. And as has been pointed out, that range may increase over time absent growth as the only reasonably predictable metric is retirement attrition recognizing that the demographic of new-hire age since 2015 is significantly varied due to flow from PML 1.0 and targeted hiring of more experienced pilots (therefore generally older than the typical new-hire pilot).

Definitive annual retirement numbers based on a mandatory age 65 decay would certainly increase the accuracy of the tenure projection for junior NB CA.