brocklee9000

Estimates since the start of the pandemic, mine included, suggested at least a 2023 target before any significant amount of hiring (i.e. movement to the left seat and then up out of the regionals) occurs. A vaccine might help a little, but with mutations and a slow rollout, who knows. I keep seeing chatter about "TSA numbers" but...they've never really gone above the 50-60% range, and it's obviously because of the holidays. Those really low numbers we saw all summer and fall, I expect we will return to those in the spring. The dropoff of business travel is apparent and will be the last to return. I'm not a doom and gloomer like that domino guy, just being realistic.

Now we have airlines bringing back furloughs and backpaying people, with the new relief bill. Even that is temporary and risks backsliding again. Until all the planes come back from storage and all the pilots are back at work, I wouldn't expect significant hiring anywhere. Obviously ignoring the outliers like the C5 and QX hiring at the moment. If anything, I would expect hiring and possibly growth at Frontier and Spirit, maybe Allegiant, and that could start a small siphon from the regionals. Mainline would be slower, but eventual. Training here is done though. I had hoped the rumors of "hiring" might mean finally bringing all the trainees back. Still holding out hope for them.