In the past Delta Airlines would not hire someone with previous part 121 captain time. They believed that once someone learned their bad habits from another company it would be difficult to retrain them.

Airlines set minimums on what the current trends are. I highly doubt if it has any bearing on who the best pilots are however it makes sense to hire pilots who have already been institutionalized as 121 pilots.

However now there seems to be an interest in hiring pilots with a diversified background. Perhaps we will see a change in hiring practices in effort to find more "Sullys" and fewer corporate automatons who hired strait into a regional with 300 hours.

Skyhigh