Originally Posted by
FriendlyPilot
In a United flight ops townhall they said that over 1,000 apps were received from Spirit and JetBlue pilots alone in the 3 weeks after the merger was blocked. Those pilots likely applied to other airlines as well. United is hiring 1,600 now (down from 2,400) and we paused classed for 2 months while they negotiate some in-close delivery slots with Airbus.
I would imagine that legacy airlines are looking hard at pilots from Spirit, JetBlue, and Frontier. They get experienced pilots, they poach experienced pilots from low cost competitors, and hiring them doesn't contribute to attrition at their regionals.