One of the worries is that AA is doing something like that with its WO regionals, but most people don't seem to have caught on yet. If they just withhold for a few months, it will certainly cause a lot of gripes and discontent. They need to be more creative than that.

Instead, AA may have found another way around their problem of losing as many at the regionals. Right now, class sizes at AA are 45 per week, so 180 per month. Before Covid, they were 120 per month. A net gain of 60 per month. It is clear that AA training simply can not handle that many, so why would they increase hiring each month if it is not sustainable? Wouldn't that create a backlog in training and possibly skipped classes in the future? EXACTLY!

So, AA hires 180 per month for several months, creating a backlog in training, and then in July (a random month), they stop hiring for a month to catch up. Then they do the same in December. So, 10 months of hiring each year.

AA is still able to hire plenty of pilots, they give their training department a chance to catch up, and best of all...they have to only flow 10 classes worth instead of 12 classes. Since the AA WO only have to flow pilots in months that AA hires, they don't have to flow as many. For PSA, that would mean 20 less flows per year. AA wins and PSA/PDT/Envoy management win. Those that get stuck at PSA longer because of this lose.

One thing is clear, increased class sizes at AA are bad for flows. It means that there are more people in front of you in line every month. Worst case scenario, this is true and less flow each year.