Originally Posted by
eschukos
The real value to mainline, is in pilot recruitment. As long as the flow is working as advertised AAG will have no problem staffing its in house regional feed. As long as the prospect of flowing to AA is attracting new pilots, The flow will continue.
Mainline doesn't need help recruiting pilots.
As far as staffing the feed, it doesn't seem like you've been paying much attention to the hiring trends lately.
Which regionals have the fullest classes?
The ones that are
getting new aircraft and the ones that put out the appearance of having the
quickest path to upgrade. Now, one could probably make an argument about hiring standards, but regardless, the fullest classes are at the carriers that appear to have the most movement and growth.
Do some of them have flows? Yes...but compared to Envoy's flow the others are crap (or, just more crappy than Envoy's anyway), so it ought to be obvious that pilot candidates are interested in upgrade and growth, not a flow. Two things that were being offered by two out of its three in-house carriers. Envoy has a very poor hiring record for the last couple of years despite having a good flow.
Upgrades and SJS are the winners.