FlyFastLiveSlow
BEWARE OF DOG(MA)
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2004
- Posts
- 2,422
No it doesn't prove that pilot pay is not a factor. Maybe that's how you rationalize it, but it doesn't prove that at all.
The bottom line is that VA's pilots are undercutting pilot pay in the industry, and VA will use the money they save on pilots' salaries to subsidize their bottom line. VA management will use the money saved to help support fare wars mentioned in the article at the beginning of the thread- fare wars that the industry DOES NOT NEED RIGHT NOW. VA management will use that money saved to "buy" market share by undercutting the rest of us who are paying their Airbus Captains $120-$130/hr + some sort of retirement (not that those rates are even adequate).
When our pilot labor contracts come up, my management will have a powerpoint presentation with little bars on a bar graph showing industry wide narrowbody pay for Captains and First Officers. VA's bars will be the short bars, and that will be the bar management's negotiators will refer to repeatedly in order to drive our A320 salary demands down.
God knows we don't need another 100 posts about who's driving who's wages down. Stop rationalizing VA's pathetically low pay rates and I won't post rebuttals.
Then why don't you counter with the little graph that shows the following:
Considering 150 PAX on a two hour flight:
$95/hr * 2 / 150= $1.26 per ticket
$130/hr * 2 / 150= $1.73 per ticket
So, my question is.....how much does it really subsidize anything? $0.47 per ticket? I realize there are other factors that might make the spread a little more, or a little less. But, $35/hr split really makes little, if any difference.