AirTran Strike Vote...98 percent say YES!

[MILPILOT17]

"the regular joe..."

"Who flies on airtran? Not the super wealthy but the average person.. maybe even some nascar folks who couldn't book swa (sorry guys, couldn't help it)."

Those are the people who provide me with a very nice pay check. I Luv every one of them!

 

[Lear70]

The AirTran MEC *HAS* been having banners towed over baseball games, but not so much the Nascar races.

Although it's not widely known, Nascar fans are more middle-class than you might suspect. Per capita, the average Nascar fan is the wealthiest of any other sport's fan base. Not kidding. Not that it has anything to do with this thread, just always find it funny when people assume most Nascar fans are jobless, classless, toothless rednecks.

 

[Scope out RJ's]

Pay up or shut up.

Gup

The southwest motto eh?:laugh::laugh:

 

[T3700]

Considering that Airtran's pilots costs would go up around $60-80 million/year with a new contract plus the one-time cash outlay of $40-50 million for a retro check

Where do you get those numbers from? That equates to almost $50,000 a year per pilot or almost doubling an AirTran F/Os salary. These sound like numbers put out by management to scare the union members into believing that ALPA wants to kill the goose. The union is asking that AirTran pilots be compensated at the same level that the competition is. If AirTran's business model cannot accommodate this, AirTran and its "best management team in the industry" deserves to go the way of the dinosaurs.

 

[Lear70]

Where do you get those numbers from? That equates to almost $50,000 a year per pilot or almost doubling an AirTran F/Os salary. These sound like numbers put out by management to scare the union members into believing that ALPA wants to kill the goose.

Those numbers are fairly spot-on. Max is a numbers guy, always has been...

It's not just the pay RATES, but also the flight and duty rigs that will raise the take-home another 5-7%, plus the additional crews required with the staffing that will result from the proposed changes to reserve and rest rules, plus better B-fund or 401(k) matches, plus reduced insurance costs (the company will have to pay it)... The list goes on; pay rates are only PART of the equation.

The initial 1st year costs I've heard are almost ALL in the $100 Million range after D.O.S. when signing bonuses are taken into account, and about 1/5 of AAI's estimated yearly net profits year after year moving forward. AAI will have to increase fares approximately $3-5 per person per leg to offset it.

 

[radarlove]

AAI will have to increase fares approximately $3-5 per person per leg to offset it.

Spoken like a congressman raising taxes. You do realize, do you not, that Airtran can't raise fares without losing customers?

I'm constantly amazed that every pilot I've come across apparently got through college without taking even an intro to economics course.

If you plan on taking 20% of the net profit, then be honest and say that you're taking the profit from the shareholders and putting it in your pocket.

there isn't some magical well of money that Airtran corporate can dip into by raising fares to "offset" higher wages. Your fares are already set where profits are maximized.

Why not raise fares $50 per ticket to fund a new pension plan?

 

[knowlimits]

I wonder what the strike vote percentage was before Eastern struck? And how many of these guys have now voted twice?

Never forget.

 

[maxblast72]

Great job trying to scare guys with Eastern Strike rhetoric, but Eastern was heading downhill due to poor management throughout the 80s. The strike just expedited the showdown with Lorenzo.

Supposedly, our complete proposal that we laid on the table recently represented a $100 million a year increase in pilot costs to Airtran. I would imagine the negotiators expect an agreement to be struck below that number. I threw $60-80 million as my guess to where we settle at. Airtran yearly pilot costs are around $200 million per year. That means every $20 million in yearly cost increases comes out to roughly 10%. We are in a big poker game. I try to get some numbers out there to let everyone make their own informed decision.

 

[ATLplt]

Max, keep making those estimates. You're an asset to the FL pilot group and often a voice of reason on this board.

Knowlimits, the Easten strike and what's going on at AirTran are as different as black and white.

 

[Lear70]

Spoken like a congressman raising taxes. You do realize, do you not, that Airtran can't raise fares without losing customers?

AirTran has been raising fares $3-5 per leg very quietly about every 3-4 months for the last 18 months. I know because I've been buying my tickets revenue rather than burn non-rev passes from friends for my leisure travel to MCO with my son. I don't like flying standby when going on vacation, and have watched the fares come up at ALL the airlines in the last 6-8 months especially.

I'm constantly amazed that every pilot I've come across apparently got through college without taking even an intro to economics course.

Macro and Micro I and II. Ticket prices and demand are not perfectly elastic in the airline industry. Aviation economics don't conform to general business economic principles in many, basic ways; we've known this for years.

If you plan on taking 20% of the net profit, then be honest and say that you're taking the profit from the shareholders and putting it in your pocket.

Shareholders don't buy airline stock to make money off the pennies of earnings per quarter. Shareholders buy airline stock to make money as it rises and falls, just like any other stock.

there isn't some magical well of money that Airtran corporate can dip into by raising fares to "offset" higher wages. Your fares are already set where profits are maximized.

Why not raise fares $50 per ticket to fund a new pension plan?

Non sequitur, your emotionalized exaggeration really isn't persuading anyone, as it's not based in reality. The reality is that the cost of EVERYTHING goes up. Fuel. Gate leases. Maintenance costs. Airframe Leases. And guess what? So does labor. It's just the way the world works.

AirTran pilots aren't trying to break the bank. Heck, we're not even asking to be in the top 3 of industry pay for our equipment, just industry average. What's your beef with that?