Bushpilot: major points you overlooked...
1. American's pilots are not ALPA represented.
Many of AA's pilots are up against the
legal FAA maximum hours per year. How can they be more productive in the cockpit? (I know, like the McPapers of the world, you believe that the rules are outdated and pilots are overpaid busdrivers, and the sun shines out of Jet Blue's a$$....)
2. JetBlue's contract is anything but a goldmine. Many of the pilots that are friends of mine are extremely concerned about their long-term career package. A quick command is the only hope for decent NY living wages.
Many analysts are starting to be bearish about JBLU, by the way.
3. The
entire US airline industry, including SWA, is fundamentally unprofitable. The 2nd Q results showed that, excluding fuel hedging, CAL and AA made better yields/asm than SWA.
The basic situation has been boiled down by Boyd Group as the airlines aren't so much competing against each other as against SWA's fuel hedging. And time is ticking on that....
It is just too simple-minded, and too Republican, to throw a blanket blame at labour.
The long term consequences of hammering labour incessantly are far more unpleasant for future residents of the US than you might realize. We're going to end up with a massive inequality in the distribution of wealth at this rate, and an enourmous retiree problem.
