Frankly,
I like all the activities available in AH. On the topic of hoards, because of the numbers, its often a necessity. For example, last night. When I upped to fight, I was always ganged by 20+ cons. So, I organized with many of my squadies and did a fighter sweep, so that at least I could stand a chance. You could be the best cartoon pilot in AH but you wont have any success if after the first merge you have a small airforce chasing you around.
I think these issues could be solved by introducing a limit to the number of airplanes available at one field. For example, if a small field could only have 30 planes operational at one time. This would spread the fight out. No more hoards of 100+ airplanes attacking one base.