"....If he doubled pilots salaries would there be a shortage of pilots at Qantas? Of course not!..."
I don't want to take aircraft's position on this because I genuinely believe pilot remuneration leaves a lot to be desired but statements like these are simplistic at best. The real concern airline management teams have is that they will be forced to engage themselves in a bidding war for pilots. This could present a situation where wages increase at almost all carriers, which would of course bring them all back to square one......they are short of pilots because their payscales aren't competitive on a relative basis, even though salaries HAVE doubled! Great for us but not so great for LCCs that may have a somewhat limited ability to pass on costs without experiencing some loss of demand. It isn't hard to see why they are so worried and hence will try anything in order to reduce their exposure to the problem. If I was one of them I wouldn't be sleeping too soundly.
The Comet.