A wise person once told me that the salary someone receives is a reflection of how difficult they are to replace.
So using this axiom it would seem that pilot wages must rise.
Aircraft you consistently ignore the point made here that $2-3 more on a ticket price would add substantially to the funds available to pay crews without causing a loss of demand due to the price hike.
It is also not
just about the money. It is the way operations staff treat crews when they call them in or try to change a roster at short notice. Showing little respect or "value" for an employee is what is hurting REX not just the dollars.
I once saw a manager hand an overworked pilot a $20 gift voucher for liquorland with a sincere thank you for their efforts. Cost to the company $20,
value to the company gained by good will from the pilot, much more than $20.
Crews with low morale cost more to fly aircraft than crews engaged and happy...tyre and brake wear, choosing and chasing optimum levels, pushing ATC for track shortening, all these become too hard when your crews no longer care about the company.
Aircraft in purely technical, economic text book ways, much of what you say is correct but it is the lack of context and human dynamics that lets you down. Strangely enough it is also where the management fall down. They all study MBA's and come out of university knowing the economic theory but cannot
manage people because they do not understand
people, all they understand is economic systems.
Management incompetence in aviation has been masked for decades by a huge supply of willing crews and a small demand. That situation is ending and so management now need to actually "manage", that is make some decisions and be smarter with how they deal with staff.
Those companies that can retain staff now will survive, the rest will struggle. Bonding for example is a way to make people stay somewhere that they would rather leave. It is a stick. Why not use a carrot? Make the place a great place to work so people DO NOT WANT to leave. Sure for some it is about dollars for others lifestyle, but for MOST it is a balance of the two.
Another example, airlines can give subload seats to staff at no cost to the company, the staff can pay the small admin or FBT costs BUT do all companies do this? NO. Why not? An otherwise empty seat sold to a staff member generates good will and costs nothing. So why is that not done?
Companies the size of REX with a moderate size staff can negotiate with suppliers deals based on their size, such as fuel cards, gym memeberships, car deals, holiday spots etc none of which cost the company anything but generate good will towards the company by staff because the staff SEE that the company does VALUE them.
Your comment above saying that REX do value their staff shows your naivety. How are staff supposed to KNOW if the comapny VALUES them? What tangible example is there? That is why MONEY becomes the currency of VALUE. More VALUE = MORE MONEY. As I say there are other ways but the gene pool of airline management is quite shallow, often the same people who would otherwise be used car salesmen. Can you NAME many avaition managers who had been awarded management awards of any type?
Keep up your posts but remember crew are people NOT economic units. Ignore this at your peril aviation managers.
