Or we could get an industry leading contract to attacts top talent instead of the bottom of the barrel. The growth cycle overcame that issue the last 4 years but now with no upgrade in sight for new hires you can see the effect in the candidates. Pre-2011 hiring the industry was a mess so we got a mix even with a bad contract, but if you go back to pre 9/11 when many top tier airlines were hiring we attracted a certain "type" and it wasn't the best of the best obviously with a few exceptions.

I would wager that there is at least some correlation to the failures and the hiring cycles when we were attracting a lower tier candidate. The sudden spike could be that we have more check airmen now and the good ole boys club that got those weak guys through for so many years has been suddenly shaken up.