Yes, true, but #1 the economy was better and the airline was more properly or should I say "less understaffed" during that time. #2 is if you look at the class size of those years you will notice the summer class sizes are about a third of normal and not run as frequently as other times of the year.

Crew planning is chomping at the bit to get this bid out and they are running up against a time crunch with their fleet planning and training (i.e. 787s and retirements). If they can't get something soon they may very well see pushing off new-hire training during the summer so the bodies can be on the line flying.

That being said though, there was a pilot bulletin announcing nine (9) new 737 sim instructors yesterday. Take that for what it is worth, but it could be possible there were be SOME new hire training during this summer, albeit not the size of our normal spring and fall classes.

That that FWIW.