dunnza, congratulations on making a go of it starting out whilst paying the pilots good and fair $$$. Im sure thats what everybody wants, not big money, just fair.
zim2uk, whilst some companies are hiring the majority are not. There is only so much work out there for the charter operators and that isn't going to change rapidly as the government or government contractors are the ones propping up charter at the moment.
Some companies may have picked up work from other companies, they have expanded which we all see on AFAP or through friends about guys getting jobs. What we dont often here about though is how many pilots have been let go and how many hours each pilot is getting at a certain company. I can say that I know of a couple of companies that have shed pilots because expected demand hasn't eventuated.
On top of those that have let go some of their pilots go, there are companies that have their pilots doing very little work, 15-20 hrs a month in some cases with a mixture of full and part timers doing those hours. This low monthly average seems to be a result of companies not releasing pilots when work has been lost or reduced and spreading the resulting flying thinly between all pilots.
I am based in the NT, it would be interesting to hear how other charter operators in QLD and WA have coped in the past 12 months and how they are looking for the next 12months.
I read in another thread on here a few days ago of a rumour that Qlink was hiring. This was soon shot down by another post from someone in Qlink posting that they had heard nothing of it.
Perhaps the few jobs in airlines that we have heard of going out here have been just to cover natural attrition (retirements and such).
Interesting and still dark times at the moment I'm afraid.