An acquisition is a lot of trouble if you don’t want the planes.

When an airline shuts down the industry typically loses 10-15% of the pilots. They retire early or find work outside the airline industry. If the goal is to get pilots then the best route is to merge airlines. Nobody likes the seniority merger but most people who would have otherwise left the industry, stay in a merger.

That won’t happen. The only regional who can afford anyone (and they have the cash for multiple acquisitions) is SkyWest. The worst move SkyWest has ever made was attempting to merge the ExpressJet pilot group after they bought them out.

If you know anything about OO’s history, they lost a CEO over that financial mistake, and his right hand man is now the current CEO (CC had a front row seat to the acquisition). They’ve decided to go a separate route to eliminate their competitors (and it’s working).

typically when an airline shuts down it isn’t because of a pilot hiring market so hot that they can’t fill cockpits

However many regionals shut down anyone who wants a job will get vacuumed up quickly. They’re gonna have to get 66yo’s to repo all the planes to Arizona

Any updates on training delays?

I’m very curious about this as well

I live in St Louis, ATP, 1500hrs, 1000 multi, 200 multi PIC, 300IFR. Can I get hired and can I base at STL?
What does FO life look like? Typical schedule?

Yep, you’re hired! Seriously, you could be in the next class. Not sure about STL as a base right now. Probably EWR at first, but you could probably get STL as an FO not too long after training. Schedules are rough, not gonna lie, but you’ll rack up hours quickly.

There still a long wait for IOE?

I’m really interested. Is training in STL? What do u mean by “schedules are rough”? How many nights are u on the road per week/per month? How many in a row, typically?