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Re-Regulating the US Airline Industry

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If a financial giant fails, the other financial giants that hold that failed giant's debt takes a massive hit...causing their rating to fall and a call on their debts, making them default...and the parade cascades down the line until most if not all the giants (who manage your 401k, are institutional traders, and provide credit for everybody from F100 companies to mom and pop shops to Average Joe Mainstreet for a mortgage) have fallen. And guess who provides credit to most if not all of the small local and regional banks...

Failures of that magnitude would collapse the US financial system and therefore the economy, and cause us all a REAL world of hurt.

If an airline, even one like UAL or AA fails tomorrow, within days and weeks there will be other airlines to fill in some (but not all) of that airline's capacity and routes. The employees without jobs will no doubt be hurt, but with less capacity and competition fares will rise, improving the profitability of the remaining airlines.

One can't reasonably make an argument that a bailout of Fannie/Freddie and a bailout of UAL or any other airline are even somewhat similar as to their effect on the national economy.
 
-- but for us IN the industry, it might return this profession to the glory days....thoughts??

Who besides a few pilots (small seemingly powerless group in the grand scheme of things) really care about the "glory days." Not a fan of John Cougar Melloncamp, are you? The glory days are NOT coming back. Handle it.

Automation along with the contemporary pragmatic business models have a LOT to do with it not returning.

There was a reason pilots were paid more and treated with more dignity and respect. The dynamics (the myriad facets of aviation) of the airline revolution have progressed to a point where it's never going back to what's been perceived as the glory days.

heck, I remeber when PC's first came out and programmers were making well over 6 figures right out of a 4 yr program. Now that salary is nothing like it used to be. The field is saturated and computers can do more themselves. Technology builds on technology and in the process, inevitably alienates many things such as wages, workers and so forth.
 
Yes, there is a case for re=regulation being made. The former head of AMR is requesting a look at it along with others.

What they are saying is that the airline system (due to there being no viable long-haul competition vis a vis rail) has become a national interest of sorts and should be protected.

What it has actually become is a commodity, with no real distinction among players. The internet distribution has helped hasten the erosion of yields by stoking hyper-competitiveness. Add the fact that the airline biz is all about cash and that it's profit margins are grocery-store thin and you can see why the best and brightest aren't attracted to this dead-end industry.

And they aren't about to pay a penny more for labor than they have to.
 
Pilot wages have dropped because the conditions that brought them about in the first place (industry expansion and the race for market share, the lack of pilots with the skill sets necessary to transition from props to jets) have changed and permanently. Qualifying for a position on the flight deck of a jet can be done in 6 months from zero hours. How much is someone like that worth?

Sorry, but Obama isn't your Hope here.

It's always been that way grumps, we just got lazy w/ our unions and had corrupt nmb and gov't officials w/ an agenda interferring w/ our negotiating ability.
To say that it's young guys fault - it's ridiculous- united has had several periods where they hired and trained pilots w/ 200 hours and a commercial license. The military takes zero time guys and gets them up to speed in a year- It can always be done. Our problems lie in our lack of leverage and the fact that the old do not look out for the young.
 
Nothing will happen that does not benefit your management. If it behooves them to re-regulate they will have it done by their lackies in the legislature/administration.
 
would you give up that easily in an emergency, CJ?
 
Pilot wages have dropped because the conditions that brought them about in the first place (industry expansion and the race for market share, the lack of pilots with the skill sets necessary to transition from props to jets) have changed and permanently. Qualifying for a position on the flight deck of a jet can be done in 6 months from zero hours. How much is someone like that worth?

Sorry, but Obama isn't your Hope here.

This has been my exact point on so many posts. In a market sense, our value is not so good right now. Some would argue that there is something to be said for experience in the cockpit, but the market does not seem to agree much right now. So, pay your big money to get your big ATP and make $20,000/year. That's the way it is going these days...
 

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