747Flyboy - I suppose all carriers have to start somewhere - look at how Excel has developed from Sabre and its creaking (yet beautiful)727's - I think if I lived in England, where there's a choice of operators, I'd stick with the biggies for the terms and conditions and the perks. Living in Northern Ireland is much more restrictive - jobs rarely come up. Another option is a franchise of BA - they seem to be doing rather better than the Mainline company - my experience of Maersk and GB is that their crews seem to really enjoy their work, and have largely the same concessionary travel agreements as BA - all that with a home life as well! All in all, I'd probably not join a new start-up just at the moment, given the economic climate. Unless I really wasn't happy where I was.............It wasn't a decision I had to make, unfortunately - BA made it for me! Good luck.