Those upgrades at Pinnacle were happening when the company was expanding like crazy. NWA is (or was before BK) pulling their CRJ's and giving them to Mesaba. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Pinnacle is done with the expansion, which means hiring just for attrition.

Their mins used to be 1500/300 and they didn't pay while you were in training. They have instituted pay while in training, an employee bonus program, a program to give the sucessful f/o's a bonus once passing their checkride, and dropped the mins to what I believe is 1000/100 but consistently hire well below that. That should tell you something right there.

In addition, NWA recently sent out a RFP to a number of RJ operators requesting bids on Pinnacles' flying. I'm guessing Pinnacle will keep the flying, but Mgmt is asking for concessions...