I saw the same gouge. I just talked to a friend who is a captain a few days ago, and she is also involved in the hiring process. She had heard that there was maybe going to be an April class. I also read that on a thread here recently. Now I have my resume there, but I am not getting my hopes up. I have learned not to in this industry. Hopefully they will. I know they plan to grow 7% this year and Alaska something like 13% or so, I think. I listened to their 4th quarter teleconference. Alaska Air Group did report that after Sep 11 and even in the gulf war that west coast flying had less losses than the travel in any other part of the country. Keep in mind the volume of traffic on the west coast is less, but I think they were using %'s. I think Alaska and Horizon's markets are pretty strong. Skywest reduced a lot of flying out of PDX and SEA. Horizon is kind of a monopoly in the northwest. I think they really did good jumping on some of UAL's routes out of the smaller cities in Oregon. Those new RJ's have good range along with the 400's and they are utilizing those aircraft pretty good.
