I currently work for Flight Express out of Saint Paul. In the Midwest area, at least in OMA, things seem rocky at AirNet. Most likely because of Bayside's decisions I'm sure. There's about 2-3 'net guys there and every week, it's different people and they all don't seem very happy. One guy has been there for 8 years and I suppose that given that time frame, he used to be on the lear and is now flying the Baron. Perhapse to rack up multi PIC time to get out.
Because my line is contracted to us from Airnet, I do see a little of how things work over there, at least with their dispatch. One thing I've noticed is that it takes them FOREVER to make a decision. I'm talking hours to make a decision. I've had two nights in the month and a half being here where I couldn't do the flight as planned, and have been stuck where ever I diverted to for the day as it would have messed up my duty off time to fly back to STP, which messes up the duty on time and entire schedule the next night. Now, all of this could be the customer instead...
I'm sure the 210 is much cheaper to operate and the way I understand it, we do operate the Barons cheaper as well. I'm not convinced of the reliability of having a 210 on these lines though. The 210 is just slow enough where any kind of mouse fart delay really messes up the entire night. I think most of what you're seeing with Airnet/FLX is Bayside trying out FLX on some of these lines to see if they work and if not, handing it back to Airnet. Seems to be an attempt to stop the bleeding at Airnet.
This is all subjective, being based on observation. If you want another subjective observation as to what's wrong with AirNet at the moment. Take a look at their head quarters. Here and most other part 135 companies I've seen have some office space rented in a hanger or use a trailer. Visiting airnet is like walking into a fortune 500 company and they have a VP/director of everything. That kind of overhead destroys profits.
I know nothing specific other than FLX has taken over and will continue to take over more and more Airnet runs. The only other thing I'll add is that FLX is out of 210s. That part of the fleet is completely maxed out. No one's selling any and there isn't another airplane that does what the 210 does. So we're now using Barons as backup airplanes at the new bases and therefore, dual certifying new hires and anyone that moves to the new bases.