In the United States we’re seeing a pilot shortage. The major carriers are on hiring sprees (most pilots are coming from regional airlines and low cost carriers), and this is creating a lack of pilots at those carriers. There has never been a better time to be a qualified pilot at a regional airline with a decent number of hours, as you can now land your dream job at one of the major airlines.

What’s beyond fascinating (at least to me) is some of the aircraft assignments and positions that newly hired pilots are getting.

Delta new hire pilots are getting amazing bids

In the United States, pilots almost exclusively work on a seniority basis. The goal is always to land a job as soon as possible at your “forever” airline, which will ideally be one of the major carriers, since they pay best. You want to do that because your seniority doesn’t transfer between airlines, and your seniority allows you to fly bigger planes and advance to captain (meaning you make more money), and it also gives you more schedule flexibility.

Prior to the pandemic, you’d typically need 20 years seniority to be a wide body captain at Delta, as you’d expect — after all, it’s the captain position on one of the largest jets. When starting, you’d typically be first officer on one of the smaller jets, and then over time work your way up (based on what you value most). Well, that’s not the case anymore.

As noted by Aero Crew News, Delta pilots with as little as 4.5 months seniority…