Originally Posted by
Bluedriver
Wide body aircraft certainly were valued by many pilots previously. Now they will be viewed as a double edged sword. Yes higher pay, but also make a company vulnerable when they make up a large proportion of a company. Like it or not, COVID19 likely changed the way humans/countries view pandemics. It's very possible that countries go into lockdown (with respect to international travel) much sooner when a new virus starts to circulate. United is hurt very badly by this pandemic because they have a disproportionately large international fleet. Before Covid, that was an attractive quality, now it is, and it isn't.
Fortunately I do not yet see an AA+JB merger and hope it stays that way with the current known knowns.
Airbus agrees with you. They’re going full steam ahead now with the A321XLR as they see a lucrative product post-Covid world. American Airlines just so happens to have to have the largest order of the XLR. The amount of wide body positions after the recovery will be a lot smaller than it is now.