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Originally Posted by glend
Sad to see them go, I travelled the world on them and always felt safe; not something I could say about the Lockheed L1011.
I see British Airways has today announced the retirement of their entire 747 fleet, the largest still in operation apparently. This puts alot of 747 pilots on the scrap heap.
The aviation world must have a massive number of highly qualified captains and first officers certified to fly these super heavies, including A380s. Where do they go? Do they try to step down to flying twin engine aircraft, which already are crewed. Sit and wait and hope for a recovery? How do they stay current? Just retire, regardless of age. I hope someone like Allan Wade can save his career, and I would welcome his views on this whole mess.
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Well this whole situation obviously sucks, but on the bright side it leaves all the time in the world for astronomy, observing, and generally working on the astro property.
A lot of Qantas guys and girls will remain stood down for years to come. I’m thinking the A380 crew who have been told it will be at least three years. Lucky I just got off the big bus onto the B787 so I should see some flying return next year hopefully.
Qantas have said they need to reduce pilots by 220. A lot of those numbers will come from people who were within a year or two of retirement anyway, so will just pull the pin now.
Qantas was one of the strongest airlines in the world going into this fortunately. So with a lot of airlines collapsing before we get through this, I expect we will be in an even better position on the other side. When that happens no one knows. I suspect it’s going to take a vaccine before international ever gets back to what it was.
(they look fine on the tiny iPhone screen...but horrid on a monitor 
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