A big one is the absolute stovepiping and specialization of skills. Nearly completely untransferable to other industries. And before I get the 'but other industries love a pilot'...Ill counter that with a....'no they don't'.

Your partner is left to run the house with little help and while the kids are young has no capacity to get a job.....so your single income.

Not being merit based is a killer. No matter how hard you work, your aptitude or underlying personality you still wont jump a single person on the list or avoid a furlough if your numbers up. Those who say the seniority list is good for pilots should rephrase that to 'the seniority list is great for pilots who are at the top and wonderful for management to control the rest of the pilots in the bottom 75%'

The fact that pilots purportedly get paid 'so much' is because of the perfect storm of reasons that keep people away from this career.

And this comes from an ex mil guy with a solid diversified background and degrees. When starting out on this path I would have paid a handsome sum of money to anyone who could have accurately planted hindsite into me.

After the dust settles (2 years) the pilot shortage will be back in full force and then some. Guys and gals not getting in. Stalled career path programs. 50+ year olds going back to their old professions. Early retirements and then just natural attrition.

Airlines are merely the intermediary between passanger and pilots...... Passangers will come back as it's burnt into the psyche of the traveling US public as a near unaliable right. Demand will also be bolstered by US legacy carriers filling transatlantic voids left by failed Euro airlines......which will happen due to their debt funding arrangements (banks) vs US legacies (corp bonds and equities).