LHR Rain,
I hope you are not from the states, if your above post is any indication of your understanding of what has taken place at the US carriers. Because if you are, get your resume updated, because there are a number of US management jobs ready for you.
The unions bargained in good faith with managements during times before 9/11 when the legacies were making record profits. More profits than all the years combined. Management's agreed to the contracts. Tough negotiations all around. 9/11 happened and the US airline industry took a major hit for about two years. Ridership did not happen. To add to the problem Federal Law requires that pension funds be funded to a level particular. Back up a couple of years, when the stock market (most pension funds were in the US stock market) was booming. Could the carriers overfund these pension funds when awash in cash? No, fed. law prevented it. The stock market tanks after 9/11 and pension funds become underfunded, way underfunded.
Follow so far Rainman. Meanwhile, LCCs the likes of JetBlue, AirTran, and Southwest (all of which do not have pension funds, but rather retirements similar to EK) begin to get a foothold, and the legacies cannot respond as they have in the past due to the fact that 1) they are loosing a sh**load of money 2) they cannot fund the pension funds because they are loosing money 3) And finally they cannot make reinvestments because if they do make a profit it goes into the pension funds first. Unions responded to management requests from all the carriers. American took probably a total hit of 40%, Delta took 50% before bankruptcy and United and USAirways had problems that the unions couldn't respond to fast enough. Furloughs-tens of thousands. Delta at one point had over 10,000 pilots. Today, less than 5,000 I believe (not all furloughed, around 1500 early retirements). USAirway furloughed up to 15 years seniority.
Follow so far Rainman. Now comes the fun part. Ridership returns in the US. But the dept built up by the carriers is too much. Delta prior to bankruptcy was $22 billion in Debt. Now if the pilots flew for free, how much would that have saved Delta. Now the US ridership is getting very used to cheap fares and good service, JetBlue etc. The legacies match fares, lose more money. Oh yes, fuel did go up a bit. This is fact-when jet fuel goes up 1 cent, it costs Delta approx. $20 million a year. But all carriers are facing the same, but all carriers didn't have to fund pensions, and not just pilot pensions.
This dumping of traditional pension funds is not just for airlines. Major US corporations are dumping them right and left to be able to compete on a global market with corporations that don't have traditional pension plans. This will be the next big crisis that the US government will have to deal with. When corps dump pensions a semi government agency PBGC takes them. When these bankrupt carriers emerge from bankruptcy, if their pension funds were still in effect, then any monies made would have to go to fund the pensions. By dumping them, with union's approval, the carriers can emerge from chapter 11 and not have to fund and can concentrate on being an airline.
So Rainman, with price of fuel, funding of traditional pension funds being dictated to by the federal government, low cost carriers finally getting a foothold, debt due to 9/11...........You know what, you are right, it is all the pilot's greed that put the legacy carriers in the shape they are in.
Now back to the DECs where you are.......What is your response to the fact that you took and are taking UAE nationals' jobs by coming to the desert. A national airline being made up of mainly expats. Same game rainman. You can make any excuse you want...they didn't have the flying experience etc, etc. Well perhaps EK should just have expanded more slowly, not ordered hundreds of new aircraft and just waited until the experience level was there.
Class dismissed. Maybe a few hard facts amiss, but I hope you get the drift. The Wall Street Journal about a year ago did a massive story on this and they called it "The Perfect Storm" for the legacies.
IXNAT
And hey fart master, you wouldn't know sarcasm if it hit you in your ass, dumbf**k