e6bpilot

Exactly. We are still running classes through at least September and have committed to the July round of interviews with job offers which will fill another month or two of classes.
If anyone with a bit of sense in their head looks at our numbers right now personnel wise, you can see that we are heavy on the FO side and lagging a bit on the captain side. If there is any slowing in hiring, we will still be around 800 for the year, which is still above the original target number. The fact that we have tons of reserves sitting during the summer is atypical and cannot be lost on the bean counters. Whatever we are hiring for is coming, I suspect in the same slow, unannounced way that we have grown for the last few years.
Zero chance there is a merger/acquisition on the horizon. Anyone who wants to put some money on that can send me a PM. If airline stock prices start to slide in a major way, then maybe....but not now.