Having flown the Saab for a few years a long time ago (for Mesaba) things going on at Silver have peaked my interests. I have always been a big believer in turbo-props and thought 80 seats or less jets was foolishness ever since they started becoming popular in the 90s. So, I buy into Silver philosophy of turbo-props and think there is definately a niche market that needs to be filled. I wish them well. I do think it's strange that they use Saabs (no APUs) down south, though. Those things were like saunas even on the Canadian border in summer! Must be miserable in Florida and the like.

Anyway, I have some questions-

First off, I read online that Silver was getting rid of their last 8 Beech-1900s and was going to all Saabs. It was a May 10th 2013 wire that I can't find anymore. Did anyone else hear that? Are the EAS routes going to be flown with Saab-340s?

Is CLE a crew domicile?

I've read through many of the old posts on here and a while back there was talk about basing crews in hubs instead of out-stations. Is that still the plan? How do pilots commute... or don't they? What are schedules like... days on/off, days off per month, etc.?

I also read all sorts of rumors from a year ago about MSP becoming a base, among other places, but nothing recently. What ever happened with that?

From what I've read it sounds like a year ago there was massive expansion plans and then everything sort of imploded. What happened? Seems like very little growth in the past year, unless I'm missing something. Guys on here say they've been on reserve for a year and there are few upgrades. But your management says that if they're not growing they're dying. It's hard to get a read on what's going on there.

What's up with that flying in Montana? Seems wierd that that's way out there by itself. Does Silver plan to build on that or connect it with the rest of their system? Why isn't Silver competing head to head with Great Lakes? If Lakes went belly up would Silver even be capable of taking over that flying?

In short, it's confusing to me what direction Silver Airways is thinking of going. If they want to go the prop niche it seems like there is a lot of plums out there that they're not trying to pick (especially in the upper midwest). Do they have no desire to expand outside the southeast, or are they just not capable due to lack of infrastructure, qualified pilots, etc.?

What happened to all the talk of expansion from a year ago?