Originally Posted by
racedo
Hardly
Pulling back on expansion to consolidate what they have.
It could be that...
... but lack of crew is a really bad reason for an airline expecting many new deliveries to be cancelling routes at a quiet time of year. It's the unholy trinity of problems that makes this slightly more serious than serious.
We're also getting an interesting insight into their operations, and into the market in general. Some of these routes may be where they have particularly most trouble recruiting pilots, but overall it's likely that they are their worst routes (and if you look at the recent Wizz cancellations then that figures).
They'll still be around obviously; there I completely agree. But whereas before they were just striding around announcing that they didn't mind the smell of anything anyone threw at them and that it probably wouldn't stick anyway; this time they are going to be left with a black eye and a limp.
But maybe they can negotiate for 14 free pilots with every 737 delivery?