Quote:
Originally Posted by OldTownPilot  Why are they barely profitable? Because they (management) choose to not cover their costs with the price of the ticket.
I made more slinging bags than a first year FO. 4 days a week, 12 hour days, but unlike a pilot I was in my own (or some random girls) bed every night. Sad.
An entry level job using my degree would net me AT LEAST 60k a year. I know guys that have 100k/ years jobs lined up for after graduation in may.
Name any other industry where a entry level PROFESSIONAL, that is required to be there, that is payed as little as a 1st year FO. Good luck. |
It's not that simple...
Airlines can't just raise ticket fares without impacting the volume of their business. The industry is too competitive for an individual company to take that kind of risk. The airline industry was once focused on selling "service". Now it's all about volume.
Picture it this way...
You are a frequent business traveler. You travel weekly from say...ORD to DFW. And you usually fly on Delta. Well Delta announces fares are going up 25% (yes it would take that much to pay first year pilots what most are demanding)..You now ask yourself...why not just put up with the lines and open seating on Southwest and fly for $200 to $300 less per ticket...It's not like that's a 15 hour trans-pacific flight!
Okay, so not everyone would fly a cheaper carrier. But flying is no longer the exclusive domain of the upper class. It's now mass transit and the market does not support what you propose. For an airline to hike fares enough to really make a dent in their current problems and survive the loss in business, they would have to be willing to go into the red for years trying new marketing strategies to get fliers back that went with the discount airline. And there is not a stock holder alive that would let them do that.
Things are as they are because of the economics of the industry. It does not matter that professional positions in other lines of work pay more first year. You are comparing apples to steak..You are not seeing that scarcely any other industry has the initial investment required of an airline to put into a new hire. Most industries new hires come "pre-trained". Ready to go right to work on day one with maybe a few days of company indoc class or something. I doubt there is any other industry that has to spend as much on a new hire as an airline does on a new f/o.