Today during their earnings call, SKYW admitted that the industry is having a major pilot shortage and they are doing everything they can to attract new pilots without raising pay. They sighted Quality at LowCost. (LOL!)

Other interesting tidbits:
They fell short of Performance incentives for the quarter by close to $4,000,000. (I guess they have a deal with DAL and UAL) Management said that they can't hit them and they are struggling.

SKYW spent an additional $2,100,000 in flight crew wages (assuming that it is Junior Manning and extra time) becasue they are short staffed.

They are very concerned with the scheduling of aircraft and gate problems (delays on tarmac after landing) and said they are "Trying" to work on things. Because of this, there has been a decrease in a/c utilization by Delta.

In addition, management was surprised when an analyst mentioned that other carriers like MESA, PNCL, XJET, RAH and BigSky were getting Delta flying and SKYW was not getting anymore. (Does DAL know something that we don't know about SKYW's execution? It'll be fun to watch in the coming months)

Management also mentioned that they have entertained the Q400, they then backed off of the question, also they said they are NOT interested in Point to Point service like Express Jet is currently doing in their new livery.

Management also seemed to be concerned with getting their
1)Operations under control,
2)Staffing of crews,
3)Systemic items (gates, schedules),
4)Preparing and Motivating their employees (uh oh!) and
5)Providing their employees the tools to do their jobs. (another uh oh)

2007 growth: 35 a/c on line many to MEH with the new start-up.

2008 growth: There is no speculation on the part of management. However, they did recognize RAH's tightening of the reins due to performance related issues the company is experiencing.