Hi syed, I'll summarise.
Nothing earth-shattering, but worth going to.
Most airlines reported that they have reached a neutral crewing situation and will have to recruit next year just to stay standing still. All except the larger charter carriers had modest growth plans which will require extra hiring. Virgin and Easyjet were the most upbeat.
Very few were prepared to give any figures, and those figures that were given were small, and were understandably conditional on the implications of the big fracas that might kick off in the gulf shortly.
All eyes were on BA, since everyone knows that once they start hiring things start moving right though the industry. They reported that they should start hiring DEPs in mid 2003 - they are neutral now but have a big backlog of TEPs to clear.
There were about 350 attendees, these broke down into 225 with <700hours TT and no airline experience, 50 ex-mil, with the remainder being a mix of FIs, unemployed airline pilots, current line pilots looking for something better, and large airline retirees looking for a job to take them into retirement.