What would it take to fix this industry?

[YourPilotFriend]

There should only be 3-4 total airlines in the USA. With no more or less being allowed. This will fix everything.

 

[pilotyip]

Back in the old days before de-reg there was a pact called "Mutual Aid". This provided income to airlines that were shut down by employees on strike. If the employees at ABC Airlines went on strike and the load factor on XYZ Air went up, some of the revenue from the increased load factor at XYZ Air flowed back to ABC Airlines. This gave the shut down airline a source of revenue to allow them to let the employees stay out on strike a longer time. It gave a balance to both management and union to reach a reasonable contract. When mutual aid went away with de-reg in1977, it gave the unions a much stronger hand. The highly leveraged airline could not stay in business with a stop in cash flow for any extended period. This lead to shorter strikes, and contracts companies would prefer not to enter, but had no choice because of their leveraged position. This stronger union position may have been good for the union employees in the short term, but is has been detrimental to the airline industry in the long run. A return to re-reg would hurt more pilots than it helped. There is no easy solution that is pilot centric