Mary Schlangenstein: And is that 75% recovery for contract? Is that down from prior estimates I thought that you had said perhaps 80% in the past?
Vasu Raja: It’s hovered in the — sorry, Mary. It’s hovered in the 75% to 80% range. And to be conservative, we build our plan around the lower end of that.
Mary Schlangenstein: Okay. And that’s revenue?
Vasu Raja: Correct.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Leslie Josephs of CNBC.
Leslie Josephs: Curious what your hiring needs are outside of the unionized groups like the offices? And if you’re seeing any one apply or maybe you can benefit from some of the tech layoffs? And then secondly, with your plans to do this High-J configuration cabin, are you planning to increase staffing at all of cabin crews to kind of handle the more high touch service and more passengers in that cabin.
Robert Isom : Leslie, I’ll start and Cole Brown, our Chief People Officer, can help me out. Look, the hiring at American is really at unprecedented levels. You mentioned our pilot hiring, yes, we anticipate 2,000 pilots this year. But over the last two years, and Cole, correct me, I think we’ve hired almost 40,000 people, which is across all groups. We have a view that we’re going to bring folks in, make sure that they’re really well trained. But it really is throughout all of our operations and headquarters and administrative staff, and we’re going to bring the best and the brightest in. So Cole, do you want to add anything to that?
Mecole Brown : Yes, Robert. I would just add to your point that we are taking a hard and thoughtful look as it relates to any hiring outside of operations making sure that we’re bringing in the best and brightest, but also that we’re thinking through not only what our needs are today or where we’re going tomorrow. And some of those skill sets might evolve and change. We have an exciting new CIO that’s come on board and is taking a really important look at our IT organization. And so more to come. But right now, we feel like we are focused on the right things and being very thoughtful and measured in where we are hiring at the corporate level. And certainly, the focus is the areas that we’ve previously discussed as well.
Leslie Josephs: Got it. And then on the staffing for the High-J?
Vasu Raja: We’re really — this is Vasu. We’re really excited for the new High-J product. Our customers love our new business class. And we’ve gotten great feedback as we’ve shared concept designs with some of our most loyal customers and our flight attendants. But we haven’t yet determined a number of things with how it operates, where it operates, things like that too. So it’s a little bit premature right now.
Operator: Next question comes from the line of Claire Bushey of Financial Times.
Claire Bushey: I was wondering if you’re at all concerned about new regulation in response to perceived increasing unreliability of air travel.
Robert Isom : Hey, Claire, I’ll just start. Look, our primary focus is making sure that we run the best airline we possibly can. That’s the way that ultimately we address customers’ needs and ensure that our customers are being treated fairly. Of course, we’ll work with government authorities to make sure that we’re taking care of people in the right fashion. Nate, do you want to add anything? No? Good. Okay.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Doug Cameron of WSJ.
Doug Cameron : Okay. I’ve got a hugely loaded question for Devon and Derek and a super quick follow-up for Vasu if you’ll let me. The loaded one. You must be relieved that you don’t have to finance 100 planes this year given where interest rates are and the bigger of supplier delays. Just on that latter point, what sort of complication does the uncertainty of when you actually get planes as opposed to contractually gating them. What does that do to your ability and choices for aircraft finance options?
Devon May : Well, you’re right. I am happy that we’re taking 23 airplanes and 12 of them are already financed this year. I will say we did go through a huge wave of investment prior to the pandemic. And over that period, I think that the timing is obviously fortunate we’re in a nice economic environment, a really good environment for financing those airplanes. As we look out to this year, I don’t think the timing of the deliveries as it sits today is too concerning with how we’re going to finance the airplane — more than anything, we just want to make sure the airplanes are delivered and in schedule so we can run a great operation and have really solid schedules for our customers. So what we’ve done on that front is we have planned conservatively within service base that we believe are coming in far later than when we’ll actually take delivery of the airplane. And that’s something that’s going to be really great for customers.
Robert Isom : Yes. And we continue to work with both Airbus and Boeing to make sure that we encourage them in an appropriate fashion to deliver on time. And I know that they’re working hard to make sure that they can meet our needs.
Doug Cameron : That’s great. And just quickly for Vasu. Vasu, are you seeing any kind of scores on the fare and schedule or scheduling front, just given how competitive capacity trends are going? Or is demand just that strong that you aren’t seeing anything anywhere?
Vasu Raja: Thanks for the question. We don’t comment on fair and competitive scheduling trends. But I will say we are really encouraged with the demand trends that we see and are very confident in the airline we’ve set up to go and take care of our customers along the way.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Kyle Arnold of Dallas Morning News.
