March 2027 Vacancy Analysis

Hey, all! The final March 2027 vacancy award is out, and there's very little change from the preliminary award last week. There are 2 more awards overall (1,319 → 1,321). 3 were added, one each at ORD 737 Captain, LGA 787 Captain and LGA 320 Captain DOM, and 1 withheld LGA 777 First Officer award was removed. That makes 2 additional Captain upgrades (Congratulations!). Withhold releases are unchanged at 64, and the most junior award in every category is the same as on the preliminary.

This vacancy remains a big one. It moved 1,321 pilots across 57 destination categories, up 16% from December's 1,136. Withholds more than doubled to 348, 26% of all awards (December had 148, or 13%). 329 First Officers were awarded Captain seats. The bottom of the Narrowbody Captain list now sits in the late-2023 and early-2024 hire classes, with DOH dates as recent as May 2024 (December's most recent was January 2024).

The most junior Narrowbody Captain award went to #14,135 at LGA 320, a pilot who will have 34 months on property when the bid takes effect. The most junior Widebody First Officer award went to #13,935 at LGA 787, a pilot who will have 35 months on property. The most junior Widebody Captain award went to #3,835 at LGA 787.

A total of 320 pilots moved from Narrowbody to Widebody equipment, up from 220 in December, and 29 Widebody First Officers upgraded to Narrowbody Captain. 110 of the withholds are pilots bidding out of LGA 320 INT, most of them new hires who joined the seniority list this summer or later. Full category breakdowns, seniority trends, and upgrade details below.

The cards below show net movement by category (awards in minus bids out).

The gains are led by 787 seats at ORD, where both Captain and First Officer top the list, along with CLT 777 Captain and First Officer. ORD 787 Captain was not awarded at all in December. The losses are once again junior Narrowbody First Officer positions bleeding out to Captain upgrades, Widebody equipment, and preferred bases. LGA 320 First Officer INT leads the list, with 101 pilots bidding out and 8 awarded in. At least 89 of those 101 are new hires who joined the seniority list this summer or later. More on that in XLR Watch below.

These 329 upgrades count First Officers who moved to the left seat (FO → CA), across all equipment at each base. LGA awarded 70 upgrades, 53 of them going to pilots transferring in from other bases, making LGA the top cross-base upgrade destination again this quarter. CLT awarded 51, nearly all of them (46) to its own First Officers already in base. ORD awarded 43 and MIA 41. The most senior pilot to upgrade held seniority #1,157, going from ORD 787 First Officer to ORD 787 Captain. The most junior was #14,135, moving from CLT 320 First Officer to LGA 320 Captain DOM.

The good news: most Narrowbody First Officer bases again reach into the very bottom of the list, so even a brand-new hire can hold them. A few seats had very few awards, skewing the data of "how junior" they went. For bid statuses with 5 or more awards, here's the most junior pilot awarded into each, tightest first:

The tightest bases with real volume were CLT 737 (#15,982), LGA 737 (#16,460), and LGA 320 INT (#16,597), each stopping a few hundred numbers or more short of the bottom. Every other Narrowbody First Officer base on this list reached within about 120 numbers of the bottom, and nine of them within 20. CLT 320 First Officer had the most awards of any bid status in the vacancy, 82 (50 preliminary, 32 withheld). For a junior First Officer, the door was open just about everywhere again this quarter.

How deep did each category reach in the seniority list? The tables below track the most junior pilot awarded into each Widebody Captain, Narrowbody Captain, and Widebody First Officer category with QoQ deltas (vs. Dec ’26). Because the list was renumbered in July, December's cutoffs are restated in today's seniority numbers here, so each delta is like for like.

CLT 777 Captain made the biggest jump, 35 awards (19 preliminary, 16 withheld) reaching #2,968 after just 4 awards in December. ORD 787 Captain, not awarded in December, had 39 awards reaching #2,737. LGA 787 Captain again led all Widebody Captain categories with 42 awards (33 preliminary, 9 withheld) and was again the deepest Widebody Captain reach of the quarter at #3,835. LGA 777 Captain reached #3,778 with 17 awards, and PHL 787 Captain reached #3,157 with 26. MIA 777 Captain had 15 awards to #3,144 and LAX 787 Captain had 3 awards to #1,572. MIA 787 Captain had zero awards this quarter after 10 in December.

CLT 737 Captain and ORD 320 Captain made the biggest jumps: CLT 737 reached #11,591 with 13 awards (December had only 4), and ORD 320 reached #13,566 with 33 awards (December had 19). CLT 320 Captain had the most awards of any Captain category, 52, reaching #12,652, and MIA 320 Captain reached #12,911 with 35 awards. The bottom of the Narrowbody Captain list now sits in the late-2023 and early-2024 hire classes.

Measured by time on property (date of hire to the March 2027 bid effective date), the quickest Captain seats went to pilots just under three years in: 34 months at LGA 320 DOM and 35 months at LGA 320 INT. Eleven of the 19 categories reached a pilot with 40 months or less. Setting aside BOS 737 Captain's single award, the longest were DFW 320 Captain at 52 months, CLT 737 Captain at 50, and DFW 737 Captain at 46.

Compared with December on the same measure, eight categories went to a pilot with less time on property, eight went to a pilot with more, and three were even. CLT 737 Captain dropped the most, from 82 months to 50, followed by ORD 320 Captain (51 to 38) and CLT 320 Captain (52 to 44).

LGA 320 Captain DOM reached a May 2024 hire, the most junior Captain award in the vacancy, and LGA 320 Captain INT reached an April 2024 hire. BOS 737 Captain had a single award at #4,646 (December had 7 awards), and LAX 737 Captain's 5 awards stopped at #13,087, a September 2023 hire.

ORD 787 First Officer had the most awards of any Widebody First Officer category, 54 (24 preliminary, 30 withheld), reaching #12,714 after just 8 awards in December. PHL 787 First Officer reached #11,502 with 20 awards (7 preliminary, 13 withheld) after a single award in December, and CLT 777 First Officer reached #11,916 with 37 awards. LGA 787 First Officer was the most junior Widebody First Officer award at #13,935, with 49 awards (27 preliminary, 22 withheld). Two categories were awarded after sitting out in December: DFW 787 First Officer (41 awards to #10,973) and LGA 777 First Officer (28 awards to #13,452). LAX 787 First Officer had 7 awards to #10,569. MIA 787 First Officer had zero awards this quarter after 10 in December.

By time on property, the most junior Widebody First Officer award, LGA 787, went to a pilot 35 months in, down from 40 months in December. ORD 787 and MIA 777 First Officer both reached 43 months, and CLT 777 First Officer reached 48. DFW 777 and LAX 787 First Officer took the longest at 59 months, just under five years.

76 pilots were withheld from Widebody Captain seats, up from 60 in December. CLT 777 Captain had the most with 16 withholds, followed by PHL 787 Captain (11), LGA 777 Captain (10), and ORD 787 Captain (10).

Nearly all of these withholds line up with retirement. 73 of the 76 withheld pilots retire within 12 months of the March 2, 2027 bid effective date, and 72 of them retire in calendar year 2027. The cards below split every Widebody Captain award by the type of move and by whether the pilot retires inside that 12-month window.

Among pilots retiring within 12 months, 54 of 57 Narrowbody Captains and all 18 First Officers awarded Widebody Captain were withheld. Among those retiring later, none were: 0 of 51 and 0 of 33. The three Narrowbody Captains inside the window who were not withheld each had 10 months or more remaining at the effective date.

Two groups fall outside that line. All 4 Widebody Captains switching to the other Widebody aircraft were withheld, 3 of them with more than a year remaining. And none of the 59 Widebody Captains changing base on the same aircraft were withheld, including 13 who retire within 12 months.

December showed the same split. All 57 Narrowbody Captains and First Officers awarded Widebody Captain who retired within 12 months of that effective date were withheld, and none of the 86 retiring later.

Same-type moves dominated: 466 pilots stayed on the 320 and 273 stayed on the 737. The largest cross-type transitions were 737 → 787 (100 pilots), 320 → 787 (88), and 320 → 777 (87). A total of 320 pilots moved from Narrowbody to Widebody equipment. 29 Widebody First Officers moved to Narrowbody Captain seats.

27 pilots were awarded LGA 320 Captain INT, reaching as junior as #14,017, continuing to normalize deeper into the Narrowbody Captain list. On the domestic side, LGA 320 Captain DOM had 28 awards and reached #14,135, the most junior Narrowbody Captain award in the entire vacancy. LGA 320 First Officer INT had 8 awards (5 preliminary, 3 withheld) going as junior as #16,597.

101 First Officers bid out of LGA 320 INT, and 92 were withheld. At least 89 of the 101 are new hires who joined the seniority list this summer or later, and every one of those 89 was withheld. All 18 Captains who bid out of LGA 320 INT were withheld as well. Together that is 110 of the 348 withholds in this vacancy.

Of the pilots who left LGA 320 INT, most were awarded 320 First Officer seats at other bases: CLT (27), DFW (24), MIA (13), PHL (8), DCA (7), and ORD (6). 6 were awarded PHL 320 Captain and 5 were awarded LGA 320 Captain DOM.

These are the final March 2027 awards, now carrying training and effective dates.

Congratulations to all awardees!!

This analysis is for informational purposes only and reflects pilot movement via the final vacancy award. This data does not represent total base headcount changes, which also include new-hire placements and attrition not captured in vacancy data. For official vacancy questions, contact AA Workforce Planning or your APA representatives.