I know, for myself and many others, that not everyone wants to go to every legacy. Many choose to not apply to FedEx/UPS, US Airways, Southwest, or anyone else because of what they're personally looking for. In addition to that, many may have applied at some point but aren't really actively staying updated with them.

So, I counted 7 airlines in the "legacy" group. UA, DL, AA, US, WN, FX, and UP. Some people are die-hard towards only one carrier. Some apply everywhere. So I went with each pilot desiring to work for a legacy is interested in actively pursuing 2 of those airlines, I went with the 1 out of 4 ratio. I could be way off though.


I agree that the pool is pretty big. A lot bigger than I had thought before I started adding up the numbers. One has to wonder though if a lot of the "pain" will be solved by parking RJs as it becomes more difficult for them to find pilots. Say the legacies hire 10,000 pilots and the regionals are only able to find 5,000 replacements. That works out to be about 23% of the regional workforce. So, in the time it takes the legacies to hire 10,000 pilots, if they manage to park a quarter of the RJs out there, everything will work out fine (for them).