may be the best post ever: I stole this from AV8OR on another thread. I am guessing he's a NJ pilot..Sorry AV8OR but this has to be read. I take no credit for this post. And please read it about 50 times ..
How did we get to a place where the only cost associated with doing business that should remain fixed, go down and is apparently not subject to the same supply and demand forces is labor? I'm aware that labor can be greedy in negotiations as well as management, but when the price of gas doubles, nobody likes it but they pay it. If I was at a McDonalds in an area where the min wage was $15/hr and I had to pay another dollar for my happy meal, Id pay it! When Gulfstream raises their prices... People still buy them! I just saw that the Superintendent of Education in Atlanta makes $450k a year. If you want Payton Manning to play for your team because your customers want that caliber of talent... You PAY them.
For most of my flying career except for maybe one short time in the late 90's "Just be glad you've got a job" was the norm. In 93 when there was a glut of pilots, the regionals in cahoots with FlightSafety were charging pilots 10k for the high privilege of getting a check out in the right seat of a Brazillia and making 15k a year.
And during those times nobody gave two ********************s how that impacted the financials or the safety of aviators or aviation... And now... After 25 years of basically relatively stagnant wages in aviation there's an actual demand for qualified pilots and some folks are worried how billion dollar corporations are gonna survive? People are worried that... God forbid... A customer might have to pay a fraction more for premium service because unfortunately the pool of experience has started to dry? Cry me an F'n river!
Next time Gulfstream raises their prices or Coca Cola theirs or Exon theirs... Be sure and complain to them how difficult it is for you to afford THEIR product and see how far that gets Ya. Well guess what? Over the years there's a bunch of us who have been quietly building OUR business. Making the sacrifices WE needed to make to stay in the flying business. And OUR persistence and dedication has come to fruition. Hope Yall enjoyed the fire sale in the cockpit over the last 15-20 years. Prices just went up.
How did we get to a place where the only cost associated with doing business that should remain fixed, go down and is apparently not subject to the same supply and demand forces is labor? I'm aware that labor can be greedy in negotiations as well as management, but when the price of gas doubles, nobody likes it but they pay it. If I was at a McDonalds in an area where the min wage was $15/hr and I had to pay another dollar for my happy meal, Id pay it! When Gulfstream raises their prices... People still buy them! I just saw that the Superintendent of Education in Atlanta makes $450k a year. If you want Payton Manning to play for your team because your customers want that caliber of talent... You PAY them.
For most of my flying career except for maybe one short time in the late 90's "Just be glad you've got a job" was the norm. In 93 when there was a glut of pilots, the regionals in cahoots with FlightSafety were charging pilots 10k for the high privilege of getting a check out in the right seat of a Brazillia and making 15k a year.
And during those times nobody gave two ********************s how that impacted the financials or the safety of aviators or aviation... And now... After 25 years of basically relatively stagnant wages in aviation there's an actual demand for qualified pilots and some folks are worried how billion dollar corporations are gonna survive? People are worried that... God forbid... A customer might have to pay a fraction more for premium service because unfortunately the pool of experience has started to dry? Cry me an F'n river!
Next time Gulfstream raises their prices or Coca Cola theirs or Exon theirs... Be sure and complain to them how difficult it is for you to afford THEIR product and see how far that gets Ya. Well guess what? Over the years there's a bunch of us who have been quietly building OUR business. Making the sacrifices WE needed to make to stay in the flying business. And OUR persistence and dedication has come to fruition. Hope Yall enjoyed the fire sale in the cockpit over the last 15-20 years. Prices just went up.
