"Every single pilot laid off within the group should get precedence for any position within the company vs a 21yr old just walking on in. Just feels wrong."
I understand the reasons and have a lot of sympathy but you do need to keep bringing in younger people - even at low rates - otherwise in 20-40 years you're faced with disaster with all sorts of unfillable gaps.
If no one is hired out young word spreads very fast and kids just go elsewhere - then you have no demand for training and then.... a n aging industry having to overpay for people at the bottom. Pleanty of examples from other boom & bust industries like energy, mining etc etc