There are downsides to every company. The most recent Republic pilot picked up by AA was there 14 years, while the most recent AA flows have been on property under five years. In job field where every month delay costs $25k at the tail end of your career, it can mean Millions in lost earning going to a place that’s difficult to escape from once you’ve been on property for a while.

With AAs retirements, AA will be hiring more, and longer than than the other majors even during times of uncertainty like now. If hiring does happen to stop, AA will start hiring sooner also (AA started hiring well before it’s legacy competition at the end of the lost decade). Either way the AA flows will be the last to have the legacy hiring door shut on them and the first that it opens for.