As an operating overhead, what percentage of overhead is that, particularly with respect to flight crew/engineering etc?
Pilots wages in QF are just under 4% of total expenditure.
So even if you cut the pilots wages by 25%, the total expenditure would still be 99% of what it was.
I think Mr Joyce is smart enough to see the value in that extra 1%, or more correctly he can see the value that would be lost if he tried to extract that 1% from a front-line and well respected group such as pilots. He would have learned this from Dixons folly in taking on another front-line and well respected group last year.
A couple of other points of interest:
1) The executive wage bill exceeds the pilots wage bill prior to the 500 management positions going, once the purge is completed the exec wage bill will be fairly close to line ball with the pilots.
2) As a percentage of JQ Expenditure the J* pilots wages are the same as QF... Coincidence?