Another factor is failing or threatened major airlines. NK at peak had almost 3800 pilots. JetBlue has 4K and F9 2K plus. The legacies are snapping these people up.

AA Interviews

That makes direct flow from the regionals to a legacy harder.

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Absorbing NK pilots might totally saturate the major hiring for a year. People bailing from JetBlue, Frontier, Breeze, Allegiant, etc., will only add to that - to the detriment of regional hiring.