I believe the reduction of the 35 regional jets has much to do with CHQ and their 135's going, plus some of OH's bankrupcy lease return planes.
As for the vacancy bid, it never said cancellation...just delayed. It's my theory that with all the folks leaving and that have left this has severly effected the bid awards and it needs to be rerun. Just a guess, hoping that's the reason why and that it doesn't end up being cancelled!
Why would they postpone this because so many people are leaving? The bid packets for January said to expect another vacancy bid late December. They could have just adjusted that bid as necessary. I guess we'll just have to see. I just don't have a good feeling about this. Maybe they're just having cold feet about upgrading so many pilots when they can't get anyone to show up for classes and they're worried about being short on FOs. (As if that would be a bad thing