A shortage at the majors is highly unlikely to ever happen but a shortage of qualified pilots at the regional level is a real possibility and already starting to be felt. Airlines don't offer a $5,000 bonus when pilots are a dime a dozen. People with ATP mins will have their choice and where do you think they will choose to go? A place like Great Lakes or Silver where they will sit making quite a bit less than even the pittance paid by other regionals first year or someplace like Expressjet that pays even more the second year.

Back to the original discussion, if Pinnacle in the future needs to hire, they will have a problem finding people to go there when they are trying to cut pilot pay across the board. Even RAH recognizes that the FO pay is to low to attract qualified applicants and tried to raise first year pay to $31/hr outside of negotiations.