HKF
Really though, if you think back 12 months or so
VB were looking at unloading crew (60 or so). If the economy wasn't spoon fed massive amounts of stimulus I believe the recession would have been far worse. If you look at the situation as it currently looks, interest rates are on the up, credit is still easy to get, wages have stalled, the stock market is largly recovered and debt levels are still increasing.
So whats changed, we are all a little poorer due to having to pay back our national creditor's for our stimulus package. If the economy dips again I'm not sure the government will be able to raise the funds to bail us out again, and even if they could i'm not sure its a good thing. America will be the big winner as they have had their recession, rates are low, housing prices are low and a lot of debt has been written off. Now they can start fresh and make a new start. History has shown the economy needs that cleansing to stay healthy.
We are currently experiencing massive growth in the airline industry over a very short space of time, if the bubble bursts, and i'm not saying it will, it will be bad. A lot of guys are getting qualified on jets and this is creating a vacuum in GA. Top end GA pay is growing fairly rapidly whilst the bottom end is still pretty bad, its not uncommon to find a King Air pilot earning well over 100K these days although probably less likely in a capital city.
So I do hope that Tiger stay around for the sake of our industry, the last thing I want to re-live is a repeat of the 90's, man that was bad. Way too many pilots unemployed. At the end of the day they have the lowest costs and that will hold them in good stead to weather any storm that may be on its way although of course they will need to make some profit at some point.
SN