I don’t think AA can afford to stop hiring. We are still behind in staffing, and retirements won’t be stopping. The more off the top, means less likely of a furlough due to cost savings. Wasn’t the company break even point 2 years on a furloughed pilot? Someone much smarter than me had a graph of that but I can’t find it.

The government is working on a "bail out" program for the airlines, which already includes the option to defer tax payments until a later time to help offset any current losses.

If the Airline was to stay at the same size you'd be 100% correct. We have an underlining problem. What is the current demand? SWA says this is a 9/11 event to their bookings. This is bad news. When DAL says they will park the MD fleet then clearly DAL is seeing the same issues SWA sees. If Airline management think they have to "right size" then all bets are off!

Not quite....assuming the APC numbers are correct:

APC 2020 retirement numbers:

AAL: 772

DAL 549 + UAL 366 = 915

Those are mandatory retirement numbers only, plenty more are bailing out early and using months of sick time in the process.

Zero plans to slow or stop hiring according to the boss of hiring.

that’s today’s plan anyway.

But the early outs are happening at all the airlines, so I assume it’s a push.

American has WAY more pilots over the age 60. There are significantly more "early outs" between 60-64, so there are likely far more at AA. Look at the AA mandatory retirements for the next 5 years.

Screen name checks out for this kind of knowledge.