I should have said accept the reality of what the airline world
has become today.
The problem is ( for all of us I might add) is that the travelling public will no longer tolerate the fares they paid even a few years back.
In those days airfares were high, costs were high, no one heard of LCC.s then (save for Southwest) and there were far fewer airlines. Salaries were higher because costs were passed onto Joe Public.
Fast forward to the present time and we are where we are today.
LCC,s have driven down costs by paying less across the board for everything except for fuel, and as that rises they are going to want to drive costs down in other areas even further.
Its not just the low cost carriers American has to compete against either. On the international front Asian airlines have newer a/c, a better product and much lower costs, just look at travel magazine surveys that all show that foreign airlines pretty much sweep the board in customer satisfaction I don't remember seeing any US airline anywhere near the top 5 or 6 , so where do you think the travelling public are going to put their hard earned bucks when they go overseas?
At the high yield end it is vital for any airline to provide the best product to attract the big money and from what I see by and large the US majors come up short.
So salaries are always going to be under pressure, small pay rises are going to be the order of the day, and sad to say, the good old days are long gone, never to return. If I were just starting out in this industry right now the honest truth is I probably would'nt
And that folks is my take on it
