Aircraft,
WRONG, Just heard of a Braz Capt at Network who knocked back an F100 F/O slot at Alliance because he wasn't prepared to take the $20K a year pay cut. So already the pay rise has paid off for Network and retained a pilot.
Secondly, These Pilot's at Skippers and Network are probably doing about 800hrs per year. To give them a $20 grand pay rise is $25 per hour. The average return flight time in a Bras to the average mine site is say 5.0hrs. This equates to $125. Divide that by 60seats (30 each way) and you get a price increase of $2.08 per passenger. Not quite the $500 you talk about. Even to give the piss ant F/O the same pay rise is only $4.16 per passenger....NOT VERY MUCH IN MY BOOKS
Cheers