Airline Liberalization

[COOPERVANE]

Go find me a well paid AMERICAN merchant marine. Go ahead...I'll wait.

We haven't seen one for decades. EVERY ship coming into the US has foreign sailors on bored. Much cheaper

This could easily happen to us

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Air India has US pilots flying for them, at very high pay, because India does not have enough pilots. Same for Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, Africa.

cliff
NBO

 

[Captain Morgan]

Go find me a well paid AMERICAN merchant marine. Go ahead...I'll wait.

We haven't seen one for decades. EVERY ship coming into the US has foreign sailors on bored. Much cheaper

This could easily happen to us

Yup! Flew with a Captain who was a Merchant Mariner and he was telling me all about it. Scary stuff. Those 3rd world workers will work for nothing. Now granted, there is barely any skill to the work that they do (deckhands), however if technology progresses enough, we'll just man the plane with any idiot and let the computer do the rest, ohhhh... wait... crap!

 

[Smarta$$]

Hi!

Air India has US pilots flying for them, at very high pay, because India does not have enough pilots. Same for Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, Africa.

cliff
NBO

For now. If the demand is there, those countries will eventually develop pilot training schools to meet the demand. There is no reason to believe this would lead to higher wages for us in the long run...

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

Hi!

Air India has US pilots flying for them, at very high pay, because India does not have enough pilots. Same for Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, Africa.

cliff
NBO

Indian law requires all pilots in India to be nationals... it goes into effect in a couple years... IIRC...

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

We Need a U.S. National Air Transportation Policy


Nov 17, 2009

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Robert L. Crandall and Kevin P. Mitchell

The following "Departures" op-ed appears in the Nov. 17 Aviation Daily
In the 31 years that have elapsed since the U.S. airline industry was deregulated, the industry has lurched from crisis to crisis, and its performance has declined by virtually every measure. Year after year the industry's financial situation grows more desperate, it provides fewer good jobs, its employee relations worsen, its customer service deteriorates and its international competitiveness declines.
While airlines in other countries have had substantial and continuing difficulties, it is clear that America's carriers have declined more precipitously.
Fortunately, the unhappy state of the industry is now attracting some political attention, and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has announced formation of "The Federal Advisory Committee on the Future of Aviation." Hopefully, the new group will come up with a keener analysis and more successful proposals than 1993's "Commission to Ensure a Strong and Competitive Airline Industry."
In the run up to the creation of the new committee, Secretary LaHood has invited stakeholders to suggest the five most pressing problems facing the industry. In our judgment, the single most important problem is that the United States has never had an adequately debated and coherent national air transportation policy. To put it another way, we have never bothered to put together what corporate America would call a mission statement or, in simple terms, a definition of the air transportation goals of public policy.
Just what is it we want the airline industry to do? Since 1978, we have behaved as if we want nothing other than the lowest possible fares, and if that is so, we might plausibly claim success. But is that really the case? Are we interested in having a financially sustainable air transportation system and in keeping small and mid-size communities connected to the rest of the country and the world? Do we want our airlines to provide the public with good customer service on modern and optimally maintained fleets? Should our airlines provide well-paid jobs and a secure career for the men and women who service the public at airports, and fly and maintain the aircraft we travel on? Do we want U.S. carriers good enough to compete on the world stage? Do we want to minimize both fuel usage and carbon emissions?
If the answers to those questions are yes, then we need to develop public policy objectives and a framework for effective analysis free of ideological convictions about the virtues of unregulated competition and regulatory oversight.
It should not take a tragedy in Buffalo to teach us that regional airlines that pay pilots very little and do nothing to assure adequate pilot rest are following a business model inconsistent with optimal safety. Nor do we need much analysis to know that sending sophisticated aircraft to lower-wage countries to be overhauled by workers whose backgrounds cannot be verified, who are not tested for drugs and alcohol, who rely on pictures in manufacturers' manuals because they cannot read detailed English instructions and whose oversight by FAA is uneven or non-existent, will not produce optimum maintenance outcomes.
We urge Secretary LaHood to allocate the first two months of the new committee's efforts to debating and forging consensus around transportation and air transportation public policy objectives. We think it is essential that the committee's sessions be open to the press so the public can judge for itself the wisdom of the objectives being decided on.
Let's take advantage of the attention being focused on this key industry to reshape its future in a way that strengthens our economy, benefits our workforce, improves the airline customer experience and enhances our position in international aviation.
Robert L. Crandall is the former Chairman and CEO of American Airlines; Kevin P. Mitchell is Chairman of the Business Travel Coalition.
Photo credit: Chicago Aviation Dept.

 

[Full of LUV]

Tell that to JALWAYS pilots

Hi!

Air India has US pilots flying for them, at very high pay, because India does not have enough pilots. Same for Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, Africa.

cliff
NBO

There is a reason they are temporarily well paid, it's a QOL tradeoff. Ask the JALWAYS pilots, some there for more than 10 years, how the job is? Those countries will develop their own, they just jump start the industry by finding some mercenaries, but they will dump the "high cost" expat labor once they can staff their operation with locals.

 

[blade230]

In Japan, the locals get paid MORE than expats. This was the case at JAL(ways), and is the case at ANA(Air Japan). I believe the middle east works the same. ie. locals get paid more.

 

[planejockey]

Indian law requires all pilots in India to be nationals... it goes into effect in a couple years... IIRC...

It will be US law too... Just wait till you get pushed aside because you are an American. Chinese, Indian and Somali pilots are going to be interviewed first because of our enrich the world ideology, Plus the Chinese practically own our economy so whatever they say will go.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

It will be US law too... Just wait till you get pushed aside because you are an American. Chinese, Indian and Somali pilots are going to be interviewed first because of our enrich the world ideology, Plus the Chinese practically own our economy so whatever they say will go.

I don't think so....

Rather it will be the same reason poor blacks and whites in America would rather collect a govt check than compete with illegal workers from central and south America......

Embrace the 'free' market....