Sorry for the continued thread drift but this needs answering.
If we go back to captains on 300K or whatever and f/o's on half that then that will simply increase the cost of flying and exclude a certain sector of society from flying.
Yes it will but by how much?
A Captain on 180K pa flying 900 hours pa costs 200 per hour
A Captain on 300K pa flying 900 hours pa costs 333 per hour
Say 150 passengers...divide in the hourly rate...$1.33 versus $2.00
Obviously for more passengers the effect is even less.
Now when you are burning THOUSANDS of DOLLARS of fuel per hour does $133 extra for the Captain really affect the bottom line that much?
Of course factor in an FO on higher wages too but the effect still pales into insignificance compared to depreciation, fuel, maintenance and fixed overheads.