RRAAMJET: you, sir, have the BIG picture of the US airline scene. Can you mail me a color copy? And RRAAMJET: don't forget, but many former military pilots (US citizens...), even after they work for years in an airline c0ckp1t, still can't accept the fact that they are only a labor commodity, and considered just a cost liability.
Even "Aviation Week, a while back, explained the competition between Valuejet...woops, I mean AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest. One of the top AirTran execs, confidentially (no names here), was forced out of another US major by a classified item in their ALPA contract, in the 90s. Something to do with a background as Lorenzo's waterboy. As for the low cost mantra, just why did Lorenzo's low cost airlines not succeed? All you need are low costs....the theory must be valid
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According to the theory, they should have been highly successful, and modern Southwest, even without much fuel hedging, should not have been nearly so successful, based on staff/employee salaries.
Again, SW 737 pilots are probably the world's best-paid.