Won't some of these captains flow through to AA? If you guys see some strong attrition, AA movement for some of them as well, and over the next few years general industry movement, maybe that will help out. Also all this talk of a grim future might get some to move on.

When I interviewed, during my HR part, I asked what the view on AE being sold off/spun off was, and I was told that the talk around corporate was it is going to happen, but AA is not rushing into it. He said AMR wants to do it correctly. They want Eagle to do well, it still strongly will be seen as part of AMR by the general public. They also said it can be good for Eagle because Eagle can pickup outside flying. They told me that in the past Eagle had chances to pickup contracts with other airlines, but AMR saw this as direct conflict since they owned AE.

He said it would have been done 07 but then fuel prices spiked, and spinning off/selling AE was not on the radar, and that AE actually makes money for AMR.

He said he saw it as most likely working out for the better, and this was a line captain, who was working in HR, and spending all his time around corporate. Not sure how much that means, but he saw it as a positive thing. He also was trying to hire people FWIW.