They do seem to make a bit of a dogs breakfast of recruitment every year. Always a big splash on adverts in flight, nice fancy on line recruitment system, lots of people herded in, then silence.... No one hears anything for ages. Prime candidates drift off elsewhere, and new starters left with a bad taste on day one.
The local base, home most nights was the main attraction, but that sounds like its slipping away. Doing everything on the cheap is not always best value.