Originally Posted by kaputt

What was it that kept the regional airline industry hiring moving back in that 2003-2007 time frame when most of the major carriers still had thousands of pilots furloughed?

Genuinely asking, as I was in middle/high school at the time. However as an aspiring pilot I remember regionals were constantly hiring (some even at 250 hours!), but I also remember the major airlines were doing pretty poorly.

Not suggesting that will happen again this time around, just genuinely curious from those that were in the industry then what it was that kept regional hiring going when the rest of the industry was still not in great shape.