Starskate,
There are indeed some furloughs left in the US, but how many of them do you think will come back to their original employers? Probably half. I'm not talking about the US economy, I'm simply talking about the massive retirement numbers coming up in the next 8 years. Combine that with the fact that US airlines have been running bare-bones for 9 years, and there is no other conclusion, the US airlines are going to hire and hire a lot. Delta is already hiring approx 600 next year, Southwest is going to hire, Continental is going to take back some of the United furloughs, etc. Delta, starting in 2 years, has approximately 800 retirements a year for the next 8 years. Average age at US Air is around 54 years, same situation at United. I'm not saying that the US economy is healthy, I believe just the opposite, but flying is now mass-transit, and even in a bad economy, the planes aren't going to stop flying. We all have our beliefs and ideas, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the outcome is.
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