It was more the not hiring of FO's. Once those gears got stagnant it hasn't ever gotten up and running again. A forward-thinking management team would have paid the short term price of over-staffing by continuing the hiring ball they had rolling in order to ensure long-term success of the airline.

We have what, about 60 or so DEC's? They had no FO's eligible for upgrade and needed to do something to staff the left seat. If we still had FO's coming in the doors like we did before they cut things off then we'd easily be upgrading 20-30 guys every month and the DEC deal would have just meant a few more months for upgrade for most guys plus less reserve since the DEC's are stuck below everyone.