im struggling to find it but it was in one of the emails mid to late 2025 IIRC. From what I remember we are flying about 2% more block hours with significantly more pilots. We are only flying 7% more seats than 2019 (275m seats vs 298m in 2025) and that’s with getting rid of several smaller aircraft (m88/90, 737-7, some 320s, 763s, and 717s) and replacing them with larger ones (739, 321s 339/359s)


I definitely think there is some merit to the idea pilots were far more willing to jump in 2019 than now. In addition to all the great points you made, 2019 was the first year of its kind in awhile, make hay while the sun shines. But after years of making hay, the urgency to chase that next dollar is just not always there.