Just took the pain to read through all 7 pages of this topic and I must say the intelligent remarks could have been condensed on 2.5 pages max.
Just a few remarks from my limited perspective:
- prime concern of an airline is not profit but safety. Anyone who thinks an airline should have the same investment return as, say a software company is definitelly in the wrong line of business. ( Unfortunatelly a lot af beancounters are...)
This is not to say that it has not to be run in an efficient and economic manner...
however it's easy to missmanage an airline and blame it on pilot "productivity" or pay.
Talking about pilot productivity (who invented that anyway?), what do you take as benchmark to define it?
6 landings/daywith 18 hours duty, 7 days a week?
Or flying the a/c in a responsible, safe and economic manner from A to B on any working day, taking sensible decisions when faced with unexpected situations...and being able to do so in a decent working environment with adequate pay and FDR's and well defined company procedures and regs. ?
Would anyone talk about surgeon productivity for example...( or beancounter productivity)?
-where I come from we have integrated our "low cost" carrier into our main carrier with the benefit that every pilot has now decent pay, correct FDR's and a pension plan (albeit there could always be improvement). The company is still making money ...
This would not have been possible without a strong pilot's union.
- I find some of the LX/SR bashing quite childish as well as some of the highly admirative and seemingly uncritical propaganda for LX. Are you guys a sect of some sort or are you on pills? Scary...
Anyway, all the best to all concerned pilots, know your worth without losing sight of the economic realities...
Hear you on the airwaves...
ciao
[ 16 November 2001: Message edited by: propjock ]