One of the biggest problems with pilots is we are surprisingly blind when it comes to matters of economics.
Some of us even believe the nonsense put out by airline CEO's and even regurgitate it here.
ie: the sky is falling. Sneaky Asian airlines will undercut us. Employees salaries must be cut to stay competitive. cut, cut, cut, chop, chop, chop. Be careful or we'll put another 1989 your way. Be scared. Accept these cuts to save the industry, save your jobs and secure the future.
But then the airlines reap in millions in profits. The greedy CEO's depart with massive payouts and yet we are gullible enough still to cower in fear!! Astonishing.
I work for an Asian airline and I make way more than I could in Australia and the cost base here is far higher than Australia. Pilots in Australia are being conned and just taking it.
The airline I work for made nearly ONE BILLION AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS in the last six months alone. And still it's CEO's are blurting on about rocky recoveries and the need for staff to accept no salary increases. That doesn't apply to their bonuses of course.
Bottom Line: Airline CEO's want to make the best profit so their CV looks good and they get a better job in the future. If that means screwing you out of everything then so be it. You are just an impediment to how much money lines their own pockets.
Bottom Line: Basic economic laws of supply and demand still control most markets and pilots are no exception. This has been the root cause of much of our problem over the years - too many pilots not enough proper jobs. But the law still works and being a pilot is no longer attractive so fewer and fewer are being churned-out. Airlines globally have so many aircraft on order and are about to have difficulty getting experienced pilots to fly them. Emirates is only one - needing 750 pilots in the next 16 months. This shortage was already the case before the GFC and my airline couldn't get what they deemed decent pilots anywhere.
Net results is that Terms and Conditions for qualified and experienced aircrews MUST improve in accordance with basic economic laws.
But it is important that we don't swallow the nonsense sprouted by CEO's whose only interest is their own. Airlines may temporarily distort markets by importing say a Cessna Caravan driver from Bolivia with 800 hours to be an A320 Captain BUT as the Colgan case in the US proves, governments will not allow this indefinitely as standards inevitably slip.
And this is the key to our own
PR Case. Governments and the public need to be made aware that the J*'s of this world will stop at nothing to boost their profits, including the inevitable reduction of skill and experience that lowering
recruitment profiles entails. This inevitably will be countered with claims of featherbedding etc and the likes of O'Leary of Ryanair are past masters of this. But don't be dissuaded by this tactic. The Colgan case and the US Congress minimum-experience legislation is a very powerful
PR weapon for us.
And for goodness sake don't go falling for the CEO Chicken-Little "Sky is Falling" spiel.
Jeez I can rabbit-on, sorry about that...