I would guess a small amount of hiring from the pool in late 2009, if nothing changes with DAL, UAL, or other potential codeshares. Maybe.

There will be no mandatory retirements until Dec 2012, so hiring will be based on attrition, which is pretty low right now...

The Q400 rumor has been around as long as the Q400, there is no reason to start believing it now...especially since oil is back in the $80's and the brasilia retirement appears to have been postponed.