SK-Pilot:
The numbers are in a table on page 8 of the 2010 annual report. Also expected retirements of cabin crew can be found in the same table. For pilots the total retirements til 2020 is around 650. I don't know what percentage of the pilots in SAS that are captains but anyhow in 2020 all pilots now in SAS should either have been upgraded already or just about to.
New pilots joining today would probably look at around 8-10 years til command given that the number of pilots stay constant around 1350-1400. Increase/decrease in traffic obviously will affect that time. There are no numbers regarding 2020-2025 but given the increase of retirements from 2016-2020 it looks like SAS will have retired most of their current pilots in 2025.
From what I've heard former SAS-pilots that left in 2003 are offered to re-join SAS with the same salarylevel as they had when they were let go. This would probably mean that more are interested to go back. So for the rest of us it's probably not likely there will be any new hires this year. If ALL of the former SAS-pilots want to go back that should probably cover the need for pilots during 2011 , 2012 and maybe some of 2013. Right in time for the next downturn of world economy maybe.
Anyway, as far as I understand SAS are lacking around 100 pilots today. This year only a few will be needed to cover retirements, but then again around 60 would be required to maintain the traffic increase. Next year the same so a quite optimistic number would be 240-250 pilots for the next 18 months.
SK-pilot, thanks for info regarding salaries. I understand that a few years ago 7(?) years of lower salary was negotiated in the collective agreement but also that these years are now removed or will be removed once SAS start recruiting. Can you shed some light on this?
Exciting weeks ahead now. This will at least stir up some rotation of crew around Scandiland.