May 2026 Briefing
Welcome Back to PilotSeniority Intelligence
Hey everyone — this is the second issue of Intelligence, and for now we're rolling with the same format. A short monthly rundown after the PBS awards drop that looks at the list, the retirements, the awards, and the bidpack for the upcoming month. As usual, everything here is pulled directly from published PDF bidpacks, 3XP lists, and the monthly bid awards.
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The List: 16,838 Pilots
AA's pilot group now stands at 16,838 total with 15,081 active. The Captain/FO split is 6,806 to 8,359 (~45/55). The Captain side was flat for the month; all of the net growth landed on the FO side as the next group of new hires came on board.
Net 2026 list growth is now +578 pilots (+3.6%) from where we started January. The growth trends have been interesting to watch. LGA is the fastest-growing base in 2026 at +11.5% YTD (+101 active pilots), followed by DCA at +7.3% and PHL at +7.2%. DFW added the most pilots in absolute terms (+134 YTD), but as a percentage that's only +3.9%. On the other end, PHX is the only base that has actually contracted in 2026 (−0.4% YTD, down 4 active pilots), and BOS, MIA, and CLT have all stayed essentially flat year-to-date. Some of this will reconcile as vacancy awards take hold and junior pilots bid into their preferred bases, but the base-to-base growth signal is still interesting.
Departures: 252 Retirements YTD, 536 to Go
The retirement wave keeps rolling. 252 pilots have hit their mandatory retirement date so far in 2026, with 536 more scheduled to retire between today and December 31. That puts the full-year 2026 retirement total on track for roughly 788 pilots.
The company also added 203 new-hire FOs since last month's newsletter. 143 went to the 320, and 60 went to the 737. MIA led with 53 new pilots, followed by LAX (51), LGA (36), PHL (17), PHX (15), DCA (13), and ORD (12). DFW added just 6 and CLT and BOS added zero. Familiar pattern: the junior FO bases (MIA, LAX, LGA, PHL) keep absorbing the bulk of new-hire assignments.
Last month I noted that the data shows almost every AA pilot waits until age 65 to retire, and 2026 is holding to that pattern. Of the 252 pilots who have retired so far this year, almost all reached their mandatory age-65 date; only a handful left early, and "early" typically meant by a few weeks, not a few years. The early-retirement signal in the data remains very small.
June Awards: 15,059 Pilots, 47,882 Sequences
June PBS awards dropped this morning. 15,059 pilots were awarded across the 60 bid statuses, covering 47,882 sequences — another monthly high for 2026, edging past May's 14,971 pilots and 47,669 sequences.
Compared to June 2025: +593 pilots awarded (+4.1% YoY) and +571 sequences. The headline growth is on the narrowbody side: NB operating days are up 5.7% YoY and NB block hours up 5.6% YoY. Widebody op-days are essentially flat year-over-year, but WB block hours are up 2.3% YoY, meaning the average widebody trip is a little longer than a year ago.
June Bidpack: Summer Europe Holds, WB Shifts Around
As summer kicks into high gear, I was interested to see the shape of the widebody operation is different this year than last. A year ago the company leaned harder on hub-to-hub positioning: PHL, JFK, ORD, and DFW combined for ~650 widebody crew overnights in June 2025. Most of that is gone this year.
On the destinations side, May's European headliners all hold for June and a few keep growing: Athens is now 151 op-days (97 in May, 62 in March), Tokyo HND rose to 178 (155 in May), and Naples, Nice, Prague, Budapest, and Copenhagen all continue at their May levels. London (LHR) scales back a bit: 660 op-days, down from 732 in May, mostly absorbed by the rest of the continent. No new European cities in the June bidpack: the new-city action all happened in May.
On the narrowbody side, one small but fun addition for summer: FCA (Kalispell, Montana), the Glacier National Park gateway, shows up as a June overnight on three 737 trips at CLT, LGA, and MIA. On the flip side, ten layovers drop off for June (sadly, some good ones): Key West, Little Rock, Daytona Beach, Panama City, Antigua, Eugene, Puerto Vallarta, Burlington, Curaçao, and Monterey, CA.
XLR Update: Edinburgh Is Biddable
This is the headline change in the June bidpack. From March through May, every position on every EDI trip (front seats and the FB relief seat) was blocked for OE, meaning no regular lineholder could touch them. That ended in June.
EDI is in the bidpack at 30 op-days at the CA-FO position, with 15 of those still OE-blocked for ongoing training. The other 15, plus all 30 op-days at the FB relief-pilot position, were open for bidding. They got awarded broadly:
- 6 LGA 320 INT Captains were awarded at least one EDI trip. Most senior was the #2 pilot in the bid status (overall seno #741). EDI Captain lines went as junior as seno #2,369.
- 15 LGA 320 INT First Officers were awarded EDI flying, including pilots at the very bottom of the LGA 320 INT FO list. The most junior FO awarded EDI was seno #16,597, which is the most junior FO holding LGA 320 INT at all this month. EDI went all the way down.
- Eight FOs were awarded 4 or 5 EDI trips in a single line. Basically a full-month EDI build for them.
The trip shape is unchanged from earlier months: 1-0-1, evening JFK departure (~2000), about 7 hours over to EDI, 24 hours on the ground, mid-morning departure home, ~8 hours back to JFK, paying 15:45 TL.
Split Duty Expands: 4 Base/Fleets, 117 Op-Days
May was the launch of CBA Section 15.R.3 Split Duty trips, at two base/fleet combinations (CLT 320 and DFW 737), totaling 27 sequences and 62 op-days. June expands the program meaningfully.
Two new bid statuses pick up Split Duty for the first time: DFW 320 and MIA 737. Total program op-days nearly doubled month-over-month, from 62 to 117. Trip shape is the same as May: evening departure, 4-hour protected rest at the outstation, return leg back to base in the early morning.
The destinations themselves shifted, too. May's CLT 320 list of 10 outstations (BUF, CVG, DTW, GRR, GSP, IND, JAX, PIT, ROC, SDF) became a different 5 in June: three carried over (CVG, ROC, SDF) and two new showed up (ILM, PNS). DFW 737 went from 8 cities in May to just one (MEM) in June. It looks like the company is still feeling out which markets these trips work best in.
In the awards, 39 lineholders across the four base/fleets picked up at least one Split Duty trip. The seniority distribution is broad, not skewed senior: awardees ranged from the top 5% of MIA 737 CA all the way down to 78% — three pilots scattered across the bid status with big gaps between them. DFW 320 leaned senior (no DFW 320 CA awardee was deeper than 21%, no FO awardee deeper than 39%). Five pilots built full-month Split Duty lines across the system, but the more common pattern was 2–4 split duties mixed into an otherwise regular line. June is consistent with what we saw in May: these trips appear widely available to lineholders who want them in bases where they are offered.
That's It for May
Our pilot lists keeps growing and AA keeps expanding the operation, which is great news considering world events. The XLR has finally gone biddable across the pond, after months of delays and "all OE" lines. Split Duty trips look like they are here to stay, and we will see where they expand to next. Athens keeps growing. And summer flying is fully here.
Fly safe out there!
Erik
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