Originally Posted by
Uplinker
Very well put Rex.
We pilots and our unions need to be much stronger, not just on pay, but on FDPs, and number of consecutive earlies/lates etc.
When considering the management perspective, remember all a pilot represents is a number on a spread sheet, somewhere between 3-5% of operating expense per hour.
That the 'authorities have pandered to management bleating on efficiency for years, granting exemptions from. extensions to flight and duty periods whilst simultaneously reducing rest, there is little left to squeeze and long term health outcomes show that there is an 'externality' not borne by airline managers safely having a weekend off, every week and sleeping in their own bed.
To administer this endless squeeze requires high headcount. All adding precisely zero to operating revenue but costing a packet.
It is not the unit cost of pilots of cabin crew blowing out airline CASK it is administration where the price of all these blowhards has to be carried on the seats airlines fly.
However, as they set the agenda, they rarely reduce their own headcount or cost.
There will come a time where airline management realise that the corporation is too heavy for the airline to support and reform the bureaucracy, but it isn't an idiot like Alex Cruz..
The only way for him to be reminded of the contribution of the pilot is to reduce his operating revenue to a point that he comes under pressure.