Navitimer,
"80 hrs a month which is a killer." On which planet have you been for the past few years? Have you heard of the LCCs where all the pilots (including most of the management pilots) fly up to 100 hrs a month with no overtime pay and no crew meals. That's hard work! But the LCCs have at least got the mix correct. The more you fly the more you earn and they don't have an army of people back in the Head Office to feed. Everyone works hard and that's why they prosper. The likes of PAL, Garuda etc are time limited - being kept alive artificially by their governments through all kinds of direct and indirect subsidies. Actually, come to think of it, the same is true of United, American etc in the US who are so broke that Bush had to bail them out.