What really needs to happen at the airlines

[JustaNumber]

Lets go back to regulation. Life was good for a few pilots under regulation. There are probably 4-5 times as many pilot’s jobs now as there was in 1977. Back in reg time it was about 90% military that went to the majors. Dereg opened up a lot of airline job to non-military pilots. To return to regulation would raise ticket prices, reduce the number of passengers, and therefore reduce the number of pilots needed.

So you're advocating furloughing 80% of the pilot workforce, coupled with average fares of $2000-$3000 (1970's fares adjusted for inflation) just so life can be good for you again?!?!? That would do wonders for the US economy. Sounds like a great plan.

 

[pilotyip]

Not advocating anything

So you're advocating furloughing 80% of the pilot workforce, coupled with average fares of $2000-$3000 (1970's fares adjusted for inflation) just so life can be good for you again?!?!? That would do wonders for the US economy. Sounds like a great plan.

Pilots want changes to make the industry what it used to be, this would certainly make a few pilots very happy. In the end the consumer will determine airline working conditions, who survives, and who grows. Why the hostility when someone posts something that they do not agree with?

 

[JustaNumber]

Pilots want changes to make the industry what it used to be, this would certainly make a few pilots very happy. In the end the consumer will determine airline working conditions, who survives, and who grows. Why the hostility when someone posts something that they do not agree with?

I apologize for coming off as somewhat abrupt. It's easy to get carried away on an anonymous board.

You are absolutely correct that the consumer (taken further: free marketplace) will determine what the industry looks like. One of the problems the industry is facing is it is still adapting to the free market, which didn't exist prior to 1978.

The industry pre-1978 was inefficient, expensive, corrupt, poorly run, and offered poor choice and value to the consumer. Major airline wages even today are built on a foundation of protectionism that was unsustainable. I really don't think that many people (consumers or pilots) want to go back to those days. If the airline industry ever were regulated again back to death, most pilots would lose their jobs, the career would be as attainable as that of astronaut, and the economy would be such a disaster that even the survivors would be miserable.

 

[labbats]

I don't think the answer is regulation so much as stopping new players from cutting everyone's margins.

Establish fares that must create profit and disallow predatory pricing on the backs of labor.

 

[727gm]

How about we go back to a simple concept.

No outsourced flight can be in a jet.

Being too good to fly a small airplane was what got the majors into this mess in the first place. If a major wants to operate a passenger Navajo into Hereford, Texas it should be flown by someone on their seniority list

Better no contractor planes with brand colors, or same scheme with different colors, or inverted(photo-negative) schemes, and no "Connection, Express, Lite", etc. implying a connection with the major so as to fool the public as to who is doing the flying.