Not a bad gig.

You can't take rejection personally in this biz. Especially 20 years ago. Keep plugging away.

wonder if 9-11 played a role. and a wife who said "we need dad home now" etc

good for him. do what is best for you and the family, always

Yup, family comes first! Wasn’t there a user on here that left flying recently to become a plumber? I don’t quite remember the details but something to that effect.

Not only skywest. Endeavor is in the same boat. Especially since you have 15 year CAs flowing to delta every month. Our senority list is actually smaller now than it was back in October. That's less than 2000 pilots.

The regional model is going to continue to shrink. Most regionals will go out of business. Those that don't go out of business will find their seniority lists shrink.

The majors will continue to grow significantly because there is a ton of demand for flying. And the majors are now competing head on with the ULCCs with their Basic Economy product. Except that the legacies have free soda and water, unlike the ULCCs.
So the hiring at the legacies will continue full speed until demand for flying declines. And I don't see that happening any time soon, especially when demand's this high in the middle of a pandemic.

small important part:

the legacies can't afford to act like a ULCC

just a small part

They already are with Basic Economy. The legacies don't need to take all of the low yield traffic; just enough to fill the entire cabin. Before Basic Economy, the legacies left those low yield passengers to the ULCCs. No more.
Which passengers do you think the legacies are targeting with Basic Economy?

We’re not acting like ULCC’s Andy, I’d say we’re much closer to copying the Delta model, which is aimed at attracting and retaining higher-paying business customers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/benbaldanza/2022/01/12/four-initiatives-that-have-changed-united-airlines-flight-plan/

The entire intent of legacy Basic Economy was to compete with ULCCs. It's a limited number of seats and only available if the flight's not sold out.
Corporate even stated this was the goal of Basic Economy when it was rolled out. And both Delta and American have the same Basic Economy programs.
Basic Economy is definitely NOT targeted at high paying business customers.

If you look at what is offered/restrictions in Basic Economy and compare it with ULCCs, you will see it's similar to what Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant offer.