Another contributing factor is the lack of retirements at American. The Age 65 retirement change has slowed down retirements dramatically. That coupled with the stock market decrease has kept AA pilots from retiring.
And since American never went through bankruptcy, the "A" and "B" plans are still intact and American never saw the massive retirements that UA, DL, NW, and CO had when everyone who could, took their lump-sum distributions and retired.
So last I heard, American had over 300 Age 60 + pilots still flying, with over 70 of them in the St. Louis domicile alone. These former TWA pilots are trying to recover from the looting of our original retirement fund by corporate raider - Carl Icahn.
Back to job hunting!
Anybody need a MD80 F/O with B747/757/767 type ratings?
Didn't think so.