There is acute/immediate shortage of pilots with a year or more in a jet because regionals stopped hiring and majors offered early outs. Both of those actions caused this.

That’s not the same a chronic shortage due to high barriers of entry.

If this was really a pilot shortage and not a pay shortage, then why would AA bump their regional WOs' pay rates significantly? That action won't make more pilots.

Raising the WO rates will attract more pilots to join the airline. 22yr old gets out of college and has 1000 hours and joins a WO since they will be paying $90+/hr his FIRST YEAR. That is good money for a kid who is just getting into the industry and won't have to scrape by on the regional wages of the past. Don't forget the bonuses.

I m curious now about what the other regionals do.

A shortage of pilots at a particular price point does not represent a scarcity of pilots at any price point.

Have we already forgotten the thousands of pilots who left the career early two years ago, along with the likely thousands of others who abandoned training because of those circumstances?

Economics 101. There is a certain amount of elasticity, but it is not infinite. If you boost wages a bunch, in the short term, you get more pilots to hire.

But if you boost wages to ridiculously high rates, at least in the short term, you reach a point of diminishing return. Many people who have a pilots license do not want or can not get a position flying a part 121, no matter how hire the rate is.

It takes time to get more interested, and get qualified, to add to the pool.

Remember after the lost decade, pilots on the sidelines in their 40s and 50s came back. That pool started drying up, after a couple of years. It was not infinite. Same with the pool they are now going after. It is elastic, but not infinitely elastic, no matter how high the pay goes. The only debate is how elastic the pool of pilots is. Stated differently, how deep is the pool, before the interested and hire-able end of the pool runs dry.

Join or choose to close up shop

Law of supply and demand. Amazing how that works.

This is where unions lose all credibility by being absurd.

Should they push for better pay, work rules, and safety? Absolutely.

But when they say things like this they look completely out of touch with reality.