Yes. But why? Quite simple: Eye on the prize. Don't squander revenue on parts, or qualified, experienced, well trained maintenance. Hire on the cheap, right out of school (same with dispatchers). Outsource everything they can't fix or figure out. Question: does Allegiant even own a single hangar? Saving money buying trashed out, junk airplanes (60,000 hours?!?) from foreign carriers who fail to properly maintain their equipment might prompt a wise business to invest more on the reliability side. Not here.

Schedulers? Hired off the street with little knowledge or experience. Ramp? Customer service? Outsource! New, untrained, under-paid faces appear every day because of high turnover (some wearing nose rings, neck tattoos, etc). Who do our customers turn to when the inevitable occurs? Call center! Ever try calling THAT place? Where do our customers go to purchase tickets and vacation packages? A website designed by our illustrious IT department.

Training? Shouldn't a company that hires entry-level applicants in every department spend (invest?) more in training? Granted, some of this could be mitigated with qualified (trained?) supervision, but does that happen? management is often comprised of those promoted because they couldn't leave. More of the same.

All of this could be dismissed as a fast buck scheme, businesses like these pop up every day. But in our business, lives are at stake, a lesson that should have been learned from the ValuJet disaster.

Sadly, nothing will change so long as the money keeps piling in and government regulators look the other way. Investors and wall street will continue to applaud, the cheap flying public will keep searching for the cheapest fare and employees will keep applying to work here. Until our luck runs out. Then, it's all out the window. Doesn't appear to be a very good business plan, does it? Maybe more should be invested on a risk mitigation department.

And yes, before anybody asks, I too am applying elsewhere.