Regional signing bonuses are nothing more than a way to avoid paying higher wages. It's a much cheaper solution to pay new guys a bonus than pay the entire company a wage that makes them consider long term employment. TBH, I'm surprised the unions signed off on it, but then again, regional unions have never held any power.

As for attrition, can it really be any worse than historical attrition here? The majority of us are too new and have only been told stories of how bad Spirit used to be. I imagine attrition was way higher 10-15 years ago than it ever will be again, but that's only my opinion, not based in any factual info.

As unfortunate as it is, it's far cheaper for the company to train and lose a small number of pilots than to pay us all "industry standard."

But that doesn't stop me from cracking a small smile every time I hear of someone leaving.