Seems to me that the company is trying to do the same or more with less crews and workforce. The company is buying back vacations and offering AVA for captain's on almost every airplane...ie. short captain's. I've personally been trying to drop a one day FO trip on Tues and been getting the dreaded "Disapproved - Insufficient Reserves".

Call it what you want...scheduling efficiencies or optimization, crew shortage, etc...but it is clear that we are currently NOT properly staffed to meet our demand and I think the company is behind the curve.

Maybe we haven't hired enough, maybe we have too many pilots in training, maybe the company is possiblily preparing for another global economic slowdown but our flexibility in scheduling is virtually gone. Should make for an interesting peak season that is only a couple months away. I'm just glad I'm not on reserve.