Originally Posted by rickair7777

Long sigh.

From the perspective of a long-time west-coast airline guy, everybody always knew what AS's hiring priorities were: Zip code, then friends & family. Fortunately for AS, they could get away with that because of two mil airbases near SEA and several in SOCAL, plus the general desirability of west coast bases for many civilians.

VX hired as initial cadre some very experienced guys who were either sick of USAir, or losing jobs at several other airlines around 2007. Then they hired mostly the same candidates as other airlines over the years. They did do some culture experimentation along the way, ad acquired a few folks who don't fit the usual mold.