Originally Posted by Intruder
You cannot generalize about cargo margins. Some cargo carriers -- including UPS and FedEx -- are (and have been) wildly profitable, even while many passenger carriers have suffered huge losses.
Fair point, though in mitigation I'd say that you've picked two of the most profitable cargo operators - I'm sure there are several pax operations operating at a profit, despite several of the big former state carriers having had trouble recently.
...so a 3rd pilot would make no difference without a significant change in policy, training, and equipment.
Which was the point I was trying to make (please excuse me if it was poorly worded) - in short, would the costs involved in changing the policy, training and equipment cut the profit margins significantly, or tip smaller operators into loss-making?