Originally Posted by Winston

The massive pilot shortage (especially at the lower tiers of the industry) has not gone away, that can has only been kicked down the road. If anything, the early-outs offered to deal with this downturn will only exacerbate the problem in a year or two’s time. You have to put yourself in a position to capitalize on opportunities at their earliest availability.

One of the truisms I’ve learned about this career is that once you’ve heard that someplace is hiring like crazy and is a great place to work, you’re already on the backside of that curve. Get your ratings and flight time ASAP, because when things start cooking it’s not like you can just snap your fingers and make it happen.

As far as your second question is concerned, this page is updated daily:

https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput