The U.S. economy appears to be slowing. And airlines are especially vulnerable. Businesses cut back on travel spending. Consumers see most leisure travel as discretionary. There’s been some pullback in airline schedules, and some lower fares in the market.
Now, according to aviation watchdog JonNYC, it appears that American Airlines has slowed its onboarding of flight attendants.
Not confirmed but from generally reliable person
“Apparently AA is suspending/pausing all flight attendant hiring and training for the entire summer due to travel demand uncertainty”
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
I’d say it’s def true that:
– some are saying they received emails saying that all face to face interviews and training classes for the summer are being paused/pushed to later in the fall
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 1, 2025 at 4:43 PM
It’s truly incredible to watch the U.S. self-destruct its growth trajectory in real time, in ways that are obvious to nearly all observers, and to do so willingly.
I run a trade deficit with my local HEB supermarket. I give them money and they give me food. Imports work the same way. We gain access to the products we need and want, for less, which means we have more money leftover to buy other things – which also gets cycled into the economy driving growth. It also spurs competition. Wealthy countries buy more and often have trade deficits.
Increased tariffs are leading to uncertainty. They’re supposed to benefit U.S. auto manufacturers, yet the stock prices of those companies have been headed down. And tariff levels don’t correlate across countries with levels of trade deficits. It’s indisputable that Smoot-Hawley tariffs deepened the Great Depression, while trade liberalization has driven economic growth.
Here’s what conservatives like Ronald Reagan and Thomas Sowell explain about tariffs:
So does our greatest living economist. pic.twitter.com/DmejEhsns7
— Matt W (@bigredmatt1011) April 1, 2025
Meanwhile, over the last month here’s what the Atlanta Fed’s projection of first quarter GDP has looked like as tariff talk has heated up:
As I’ve noted, this is very bad for the world, but not for everyone in equal ways. It could actually mean good times for frequent flyers spending their miles!
That’s because there will be fewer miles as a result of lower credit card spending resulting from reduced economic activity, which means less competition for award seats, and there will be more unsold airline seats to liquidate as saver awards as a result of reduced demand for air travel.
Putting tariffs on imports – harming ourselves – because other countries harm themselves is like Cleavon Little putting a gun to his own head in Blazing Saddles. And the townspeople of Rock Ridge react, “Hold it men, he’s not bluffing! He’s just crazy enough to do it!”
Update: American Airlines tells me that cancelling on job candidates is because they’ve filled all their spots. A spokesperson offers, therefore, that this round of interview cancellations is unrelated to the direction of the macroeconomy.
We’ve met our annual flight attendant hiring goals ahead of the summer travel season — hiring more flight attendants this year than we did in 2024. Many of these new talented flight attendants are already flying with us, and we look forward to welcoming many more to American over the next couple of months.
The implication here is that they regularly schedule interviews knowing that they won’t actually keep the appointments.