December 2026 Vacancy Analysis

Hey, all! December 2026's preliminary vacancy is out and it's a big one. This award moved 1,109 pilots across 57 destination categories, up 32% from September's 841 as the vacancy rebounded from an unusually small quarter. Withholds fell to 146, just 13% of all awards, roughly half of September's 24% share. The headline is upgrades: 327 First Officers were awarded Captain seats, and 17 of 19 Narrowbody Captain categories reached more junior. The bottom of the Narrowbody Captain list now sits in the late-2023 and early-2024 hire classes, with DOH dates as recent as January 2024.

The most junior Narrowbody Captain award went to #14,489 at LGA 320. The most junior Widebody First Officer award went to #13,669 at LGA 787. The most junior Widebody Captain award went to #4,411 at LGA 787.

214 Narrowbody pilots moved to Widebody equipment, and 25 Widebody First Officers upgraded to Narrowbody Captain, giving up the right seat on a Widebody to put the Captain hat on. 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 Widebody First Officer and Captain seats at LGA and MIA, with LGA 787 First Officer and MIA 737 Captain at the top. The losses are again almost entirely junior Narrowbody First Officer positions bleeding out to Captain upgrades, Widebody equipment, and preferred bases, with MIA 737 First Officer leading the outflow. This is the familiar churn of a large vacancy, amplified: with 327 upgrades on the board, junior First Officers had plenty of movement opportunities to get into their preferred bases.

These 327 upgrades count First Officers who moved to the left seat (FO → CA), across all equipment at each base. LGA awarded 84 upgrades, 69 of them going to pilots transferring in from other bases, making LGA far and away the top cross-base upgrade destination this quarter. MIA awarded 59, mostly to its own First Officers already in base (45). PHL awarded 34, with 22 of those coming from other bases. The most senior pilot to upgrade held seniority #424, going from DFW 787 First Officer to DFW 787 Captain. The most junior was #14,489, moving from MIA 737 First Officer to LGA 320 Captain.

The good news: most Narrowbody First Officer bases now 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 (#16,829), CLT 320 (#16,945), and DFW 737 (#17,155), each stopping a few hundred numbers short of the bottom. But every other Narrowbody First Officer base was awarded deep into the junior list, most of them all the way down. Even LGA 320 INT, mostly transatlantic XLR flying, went to #17,617. For a junior First Officer, the door was open just about everywhere 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. Sep ’26).

Widebody Captain broadly opened up. LGA 787 Captain led all Widebody Captain categories with 48 awards (33 preliminary, 15 withheld) reaching as junior as #4,411, compared to #2,850 last quarter, the deepest Widebody Captain reach of the quarter. DFW 787 Captain had 35 awards to #3,003, and MIA 777 Captain 30 awards to #3,957. Two categories tightened at the top: DFW 777 Captain awarded just 5 awards to #1,102, and CLT 777 Captain had only 4 awards to #1,461 (vs. #2,751 in September). LAX 777 Captain opened back up with 7 awards to #2,186.

Nearly every Narrowbody Captain category reached more junior, 17 of 19, which is good news for First Officers looking to upgrade. PHL 320 Captain made the biggest jump, 38 awards reaching #13,841 (vs. #10,136 in September). LAX 320 Captain reached #13,916 with 21 awards (vs. #12,068), and LGA 320 Captain INT went to #14,355 with 35 awards (vs. #13,377). MIA 737 Captain had the most awards of any Captain category, 64, reaching #14,160. The bottom of the Narrowbody Captain list now sits in the late-2023 and early-2024 hire classes.

Only two categories went more senior, and both were due to the sheer lack of award counts: BOS 737 Captain awarded just 7 awards to #10,150 (vs. #13,332 in September, which had 14 awards), and CLT 737 Captain had 4 awards to #10,040.

Widebody First Officer opened up dramatically. DFW 777 First Officer reached #11,123 with 18 awards after just 2 awards at #3,956 in September, the single biggest QoQ swing in the vacancy.LGA 787 First Officer reached #13,669 with 49 awards (vs. #9,863), and MIA 777 First Officer had the most of any Widebody First Officer category, 51 awards, reaching #13,517. Three categories were awarded after sitting out in September: PHL 787, ORD 787, and CLT 777 First Officer. DFW 787 First Officer and LGA 777 First Officer had zero awards this quarter after being active in September.

59 pilots were withheld from Widebody Captain seats, down from 83 in September. LGA 787 Captain had the most with 15 withholds, followed by DFW 787 Captain (12), MIA 777 Captain (10), and PHL 787 Captain (10).

Same-type moves dominated: 387 pilots stayed on the 320 and 273 stayed on the 737. The largest cross-type transitions were 320 → 787 (65 pilots), 320 → 777 (57), and 737 → 787 (55). 214 total Narrowbody pilots moved to Widebody equipment. 25 Widebody First Officers moved to Narrowbody Captain seats.

35 pilots were awarded LGA 320 Captain INT, reaching as junior as #14,355 (vs. #13,377 in September), continuing to normalize deeper into the Narrowbody Captain list. LGA 320 First Officer INT had 11 awards going as junior as #17,617. On the domestic side, LGA 320 Captain DOM reached #14,489 with 30 awards, the most junior Narrowbody Captain award in the entire vacancy.

Of the pilots who left LGA 320 INT, the top destinations were LGA 320 Captain DOM (7), PHL 320 Captain (4), and four seats tied at 3: LGA 787 Captain, DFW 320 Captain, LGA 320 Captain INT, and MIA 320 First Officer. LGA 320 Captain INT was among the deepest-reaching Captain categories this quarter.

Just a reminder that these are preliminary awards, and they are subject to change. This page will be updated when the final vacancy awards come out in a few weeks.

Congratulations to all awardees!!

This analysis is for informational purposes only and reflects pilot movement via the preliminary vacancy award, which is subject to change. 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.