A little economic meltdown in 08/09 which caused marketing to pull our schedule and block hours way down. They also reduced overlap from the merger and closed one hub and essentially closed another. Less block hours equals less pilots. They made a decision not to furlough those pilots but like any surplus they move it to the copilot seats. That is why over the last few years the Captains categories have been much more stable then the copilot categories and since the contract was signed every single bid has added new captains slots. The last 3 trips I flew at least one copilot held a captains bid. Its nice to see and has been a long time coming.