Sydenite I suggest your friend check his sources. Im sitting on a letter of intent and the last email that was sent out last week was that courses are still on hold for the next 4 weeks until the board makes a decision on future needs. This is on top of another two week delay prior.
Not to be a downer but the economy both locally and worldwide is slowing drastically so this will have to impact numbers required by the rat. Just as an example next FY they were due to expand at 8 percent but new plan is 0 growth, due to fleet retirements etc What that will do to upcoming courses is anyones guess!
By all means stay positive but remember it was only a couple of years ago that guys were in the hold pool for about TWO years.