It's time for Rex to understand that like the Air Force in the past that they are the trained manpower shock absorber to keep the big jets flying.
When times are tough Rex will have plenty of pilots and when times are good they will have trouble keeping them - unless they have built employee loyalty through appropriate measures. Blind Freddy can read the stats and see what is coming but it is much harder to convince accountants about the economic fundamentals of supply and demand.
So, for Rex let's put their problems down to a p!$$ poor environmental scanning (purposeful use of $ symbol implying a lack thereof).
But then again ....
Frankly, I don't give a damn.