It’s not about the costs. It’s about the long term compounding costs.
Alan proved that with the pay freeze.
So while you may think it’s about small margins. It’s not. It’s about the compounding savings in the years to come.
It’s also about this. You’ve got to park your capital somewhere. If you can park the cash in domestic and get a better return, they will. Hence why the margins/business case are probably wafer thin compared to the return of parking the cash in another devision.
Pilot costs would not factor in regarding profit or loss. But they may make a difference in the business case of where the best ROI is.
So I guess if the 4 major sticking points are not resolved, then maybe domestic may see some cheap max aircraft.