It's not really the military charters so much. There are bases all over the planet, not just the sandpit.
They were to start a large commercial contract just before covid shut the planet down. They hired like crazy in advance of that contract. The contract got cancelled due to covid.... and existing commercial contracts got suspended due to covid. The company management did a great job of re-tasking the planes to other missions. We've added new business in other areas, and the planes have kept fairly busy, but not as busy as pre-covid.
This paid leave LOA is actually pretty cool. It's a good deal for both pilots and the company. Kudo's to the managers and union folks on hashing out a good deal for all.