Hey Flex,
Glass pretty much covered everything. I wish I could answer on the co-pays, but I run my insurance through my side business so I don't use Avantair's plan at this time.
I don't like that new hires are not on salary during training, but we are not having a problem getting people into class so I doubt it will change any time soon. I don't know if it was only because my group was TDY doing airplane training, but our checks were ready for us on the day of the check ride, via Fedex. That was nice after 3 weeks of negative cash flow from savings.
Upgrades are running less than a year for some folks (mostly depends on experience) and a year to a year+ for others. As may other folks have said before, past performance is not indicative of future returns. Upgrade depends solely upon attrition and further growth. We still have some attrition and we are growing, albeit slower than this time last year. Once the economy turns around and oil comes down from sky high levels, I think you will see us accepting deliveries faster than we are now.
Avantair certainly does have a great niche in the market. People can't believe our fuel flows in the mid thirties. (600-700 pph TOTAL). The cabin could be compared to a Hawker while cruise speed is only about 15% slower. The airplane really sells itself once a potential owner gets on board.
Who likes
Alaska?
We don't get up there often, but hopefully all of us get a chance to go visit Alaska at some point. If the WX was good, they must have had some great views. I'm jealous of this crew, for sure!