PauldeGearup - that's a rather short-sighted attitude! Let me put it this way - you can have all the pilots you need, but if the ground engineers aren't prepared to sign off your aircraft, you're as flightless as a kiwi.
Or if the cabin crew decide they aren't going to work - then you're grounded.
Equally, if the passenger service people decide not to process the pax then you're also going no where.
What
exactly makes you think that you're (a) worth more than any of your colleagues; or (b) you're indispensible?
It's a
team effort and for one group to demand astronomical pay increases at the expense of the rest of the team is deeply divisive.
FLAREDAMIT - where have you been hiding for the last year or so; Central Africa?
If you don't believe that we're in an economic slowdown/recession (depending on your definition) just talk to your commercial department. Then read some of the threads - especially in the Freight Dogs forum. Really!!!
The reality is that it's not pax numbers that count; it's the yields. With the increase of routes by people like FR, EZY and GO, more low fare pax are flying (Freddie Laker's 'Forgotten Man' effect). However, it's the high yield pointy end F and J class pax that pay the bills at the end of the day - and those people are evaporating about as fast as a spilt glass of water in the Sahara!