I think everyone looking at hiring info needs to take a deep breath. This is my opinion and my opinion only but here it goes......

United made a major mistake this summer and now has a margin problem for the next few months. They rolled out Basic Economy very aggressively which means we sold more lower end tickets while sending customers who shop around to American and Delta who offer similar price but a standard economy product. I think this mangment team was very greatful for the hurricane because that takes some of the sting out of the mistake. They claim we lost ~300m due to the Hurricane but my guess is they inflated that number by 75-100m to help make basic economy look like it has less of an impact. The other things you can do to help this look better while you wait for your mistake to unwind itself is hold off on high cost non capex. If we take training and push it to the 2nd quarter which we just did then you take out some of the head wind from Basic economy being rolled out too aggressively. That is what I think they are doing. I also think they expect a large number of returnees. Next we have a need for ~700 pilots. ~350 retirements and 20 growth airplanes. If you get 250 pilots returning plus 400 new hires you are basically there. That my guess.

Good luck to everyone looking forward to a class date. I hope you gt here sooner rather then later