I think the best solution is to bring the 76-seaters back to mainline AA and bring the pilots with them. But AA isn’t in a hurry to give up the long-term revenue advantage they hold by APA allowing 65-seat RJs to count as “small” RJs in their scope clause. When RJ’s represent 40% of the lift in DFW and CLT, that’s a massive advantage.

Management views the current situation in the industry as a short-term problem. And they aren’t in the business of applying long-term solutions to fix short-term problems. They’re also banking on the coming recession to slow hiring/attrition to a more manageable level at some point TBD.

To keep pilots at the regionals it’s going to take a combination of money (a lot more of it), career progression/security, and enhanced quality of life. There isn’t a single thing that fixes the current situation. So they are between a rock and a hard place. Do they do what it takes to save this segment of the industry and inevitably spend hundred of millions of dollars more than they already have committed to it? Or do they lose hundreds of millions in revenue by letting it wither? No good options from their perspective.

I think APA is being short-sighted. If they worked with the AA WOs to come up with a “name your price” solution to the current situation they would have a lot more leverage with management. As it stands now I would expect to see an, “industry leading” contract from APA that essentially grants a modest pay raise that likely won’t mean a whole lot with inflation and includes some scheduling / LTD / soft pay benefits to bring you up to par with Delta and United… Then you’ll be leapfrogged by Delta and United in short order. Just like last time. This is an opportunity to be industry leading and exert more leverage than APA has had in a very long time. As it stands now American is going to shrink. United has a bunch of 73’s coming online and Delta has already grown its small narrowbody fleet by adding the 717 and A220. American has no plan. It’s going to shrink.