The company will offer various positions (base + aircraft) but not attach a specific number of spots to them. Then the class gets that list and ranks all their choices. The company then goes and tries to match the wants of the class with the needs and training capacity of the company. Obviously if everyone puts ATL 320 as their top choice then most people will not get their top choice. Generally it sounds like most people are not getting worse than their 3rd or 4th choice.

Edit: also note that these drops with positions across multiple bases are not the norm. Historically the majority of each class has been offered NYC with only a handful (or zero) positions outside NYC. The company is limited in what they can offer new hires to only the unbid positions from the most recent AE (bid). The company was originally going to run an AE in January but delayed that due to omicron so they had already used up most of their available NYC spots and thus have had to spread the love recently. We have an AE open right now and once that is awarded in a week or two you will in all likelihood see a return to NYC-heavy class drops again since all the new hires over the past several months who were forced into NYC will be able to bid out, leaving a huge hole that needs to be filled by future new hires.