If you don’t have the airplanes or the pilots then you can’t. Hints the wet leases going away as staffing is getting caught up, per SIG notes this month. As Kronan posted above, they don’t pay just an FO rate. 3 possible penalties triggered. Proofs in the fleet count and history. It works!

If it was more cost efficient to wet lease and pay the penalty payments then why increase the fleet count consistently and increase FDX pilot jobs? Why not just outsource and pay the penalty payments? A bean counter obviously does the math and comes to the same conclusion.