Originally Posted by Adam Smith

The world was heading for a widespread pilot shortage pre-COVID. During COVID, many pilots took early retirements and new pilot hiring was curtailed. Airlines are basically back to flying 2019 schedules at this point, with a smaller pilot pool. That macro climate (combined with inflation in the broader economy, to a certain extent) is what has led to the substantial increases in other recent pilot contracts, such as at WS. AC needs new pilots, and it needs existing pilots not to leave or retire. There really is no weakness for them to exploit.