Originally Posted by
abcdoremi
Sorry for the ignorance, but just curious as to why a reduction in numbers is being talked about, when there are supposed to be more aircraft and more pilots recruited at QF (going through the application process myself). Wouldn’t QF just give the 747 pilots the new spots on the 787 and vacant spots on the other fleets?
Many of the current 744 drivers are senior enough to be in their rank on the A380. They’ve chosen not to go to the A380 for any number of reasons. However once their current ride is retired, they have the right to bid to go where their seniority gets them. Thus they can ‘displace’ more junior pilots who are currently on a more ‘senior aeroplane’.
There are a number of nuances as to how this plays out as alluded to by both Jetsbest and maggot. Not least of these is that you need crew trained for when a 787 arrives but you still need crew flying the 744 until the day the 787 arrives. So those 744 crew can’t be released to fly that new aeroplane straight away. It’s a three to four month course to convert. One month ground School, one month sim, one to two months line training- takes a full 8 Weeks to clock up ten sectors when the sector length is north of 14 hours.
Hence maggot’s comment about it not being simple!