Furoughs at Midwest

[FlyWolf]

------------

 

[Donsa320]

Whoa.......STOP! Why should the government get involved? Folks is it the governments fault that the airline executives refuse to raise fares to pay for the cost of doing business? HELL NO! I keep seeing load factors by most of the airlines in the mid 80 percentile. Folks that tells me one damn thing.....WE AINT charging enough to use our product. We are giving it away! Yes there is a point where the consumer says enough I'm not going to pay any more. But have we reached that point, NO! Nationwide we are paying on average $3.32 a gallon in fuel, have consumers gotten angry enough and stopped driving, NO! The airlines have to stop making excuses and start passing the cost to the consumer like every other industry. Airlines selling tickets for $10 or $39 dollars to fly from point A to point B in this current environment will not get a tear from me. That is just plain stupid! It cost money to fly those beautiful airplanes and the airlines have to do a better job of educating the consumer. I will say it over and over.....it is better to have a 60% load factor and break even than a 85% load factor and take a loss. These airline executives get paid the big bucks not when times are good, but supposedly when times are bad. They are supposed to figure out what medium the consumer has said is enough and will stop paying. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have not hit that point yet. So leave the government out of it, let the executives earn their PAY and BONUS'!

Amen. I have some real and current numbers for you (all) to digest. At the local carrier here the current fuel costs are $70 per passenger per HOUR. The fleet consists of 717's,-80's and 50 seat CRJ's. All the hand wringing in the world won't change that cost figure much. The only realistic course of action is that fares have to rise to cover cost.
Your own carrier's fuel cost may vary but by how much?
Effcient airplanes and hedges help but again by how much?
Shrinking the airline slows the negative cash flow but only delays the inevitable.
Crews could fly for nothing with little effect.
Fares need to be realistc at today's oil prices.

DC

 

[DASHDRIVER]

CL,

I think they will still put it to a member vote. If I wasn't being furliughed I would want the option to say yes or no before giving money out of my check. Whit that said I would vote yes, and have in the past at other companies. I just hope that our pilot group has learned a lesson and that the guys that got screwed last time remember how hard it was to get things going again after nine eleven. There are less jobs in the industry now then then.

 

[CitationLover]

CL,

I think they will still put it to a member vote. If I wasn't being furliughed I would want the option to say yes or no before giving money out of my check. Whit that said I would vote yes, and have in the past at other companies. I just hope that our pilot group has learned a lesson and that the guys that got screwed last time remember how hard it was to get things going again after nine eleven. There are less jobs in the industry now then then.

Well either way you can make your feelings known at the open MEC meeting on May 12th. I am sure if the majority desires a pilot wide vote it will be done that way, however just pointing out the MEC can unilaterally impose one.