According to rumors from a management pilot (must be true
) ANA needs AJX to have 280 pilots by the end of next fiscal year (March 2016). We now have 240 (including trainees) and figuring in that 15 to 20 will retire, leave or be fired by then, we need to hire another 60 pilots in next 18 months. 6 to 8 per class every other month.
Of course this can change tomorrow but for the past 6 or 7 years the hiring has never stopped and I do not expect it to stop soon.
Captain upgrades are now at about 5 year mark, but that might come back to 4 next year when we hit the group of slow hiring from 3-4 years ago. We had a 6-8 month period when class size was small so it will accelerate things a little if they keep upgrading 12 per year as previously. This fiscal year we have only 8 upgrades.