Don’t underestimate the impact that an airline’s size has on recruiting. A lot of new hires view size and stability as one in the same, and bigger airlines, particularly OO YX MQ OH 9E and even YV are pretty well staffed. More airplanes, bases, and partners are a big sell to new hires.

The smaller airlines seem to have more trouble hiring. Tool over to the Piedmont forum, you’ll see the pilot group has shrunk and recruiting can’t keep up with attrition, even with the flow carrot. There’s whisperings that a Piedmont-Envoy merge may happen someday.

I agree that both EV and C5 have pieces that the other needs, and if they can both add more bases and appear more stable with a merge, it might be worthwhile.