New airplanes when you have nearly the youngest and most fuel efficient fleet already is growth. Do you seriously believe B6 is buying NK to get Cinquo de Mayo? The order book is key. Average fleet age for the JB 320s is 17 years. Most of them are CEOs. And Airbus isn’t able to accelerate A320 deliveries to airlines further down the line because supply chain issues are handicapping their output. And 220 output is being hurt even worse.

And yeah, right now for NK it’s like the sorcerers apprentice, more new aircraft inbound than we can staff, and that’s a GOOD thing, since if they don’t raise rates and get those aircraft into production the leasing and financing costs will eat NK alive. That is what is called leverage. And far more leverage for the pilot group than touting slave labor wages and no insurance for newbies and allowing the company to keep an endless supply of cheap first year labor going.

The interest and leasing expense of those aircraft sitting will get NK to a negotiating table in a manner that abusing new hires never will.