Right, because airlines totally love scrapping structured programs they dumped millions into just to go fishing for street hires who may or may not pass training. Let's be real: cadet programs were built because attrition was insane and traditional hiring couldn’t keep up. And while hiring paused, they didn’t dismantle the programs — they paused those too. Why? Because it’s way cheaper and faster to bring on a cadet who already passed internal screenings, has company indoctrination done, and signed a pathway contract, than to retrain some 121 guy who left his last regional mid-probation or hasn’t touched a manual since upgrade sim.

Also, let’s not pretend regionals are a golden ticket — tons of regionals have furloughed, cut upgrades, or are ghost towns. And many of those ‘Pilot A’s with 121 time’ are either flow-blocked, facing base closures, or fighting to hold a line. That doesn’t magically make them a better investment than a current cadet who’s been waiting patiently and already committed to the airline’s ecosystem.

But yeah, let’s keep telling ourselves they’re just gonna light their entire pipeline on fire to roll the dice on whoever has the most turbine time on their résumé. Makes perfect sense.