couple of things, as far as new hires, we are hiring a lot. There seems to be no end in sight. There also is more wash out than normal, but don't let that scare you, I think it is simply the fact that many new hires have no 121 experience. AWAC has always been blessed with new hires from 121 background and the training dept has had trouble moving toward truly new airline pilots. Pay attention, try hard, have good attitude and its easy, they will go a long way to help the right people, bad attitude, and they will ask you to write a resignation letter and show you the door.
As far as growth, I don't think anyone knows. Meaning not AWAC, not Eagle, not RAH, and not AAL. But I will say, they are spending money, and beefing up numbers, but that doesn't mean anything, we had high numbers in 06 with the assumption we were getting additional flying from Midwest. We did not get that flying, who knows why, lots of guesses, but in hindsight it was genius. SkyWest got it and has been playing musical airplanes ever since. My gut is AWAC is a player, we have money, its as good or better than any regional to work for. I think the future is fluid and fast moving right now. I am fairly certain that we were going to fly CRJ900s for Delta if Pinnacle voted down TA. That was never announced nor put out for bid, but that's the kind of behind closed door things AWAC does, they answer to no one, and are VERY connected throughout the industry.
Just one guys thoughts