Continental. Interesting subject.
Many will tell you that Frank Lorenzo "done 'em in". The real reason is that Contineltal at the time was the weakest trunk carrier, and simply could not compete with UAL at DEN and ORD. ......411A
411A, would be nice if you knew what you were talking about.
I referred to the Continental of Lorenzo. somehow you drag in the Bob Six, pre-deregulation, bankruptcy for whatever reason Continental.
The Continental I referred to was your "wet dream", of a major airline, the one combining Texas Air in Houston, Peoples Express in EWR and a Cleveland hub.the airline with rock bottom labor costs, no pilot union, FAR work rules, ect. They only came back when a good manager raised salaries and provided leadership.(something out of your comprehension given you posts on being a "Captain") Their pay is very close to mine at AA now.
The major pilot salaries are a big factor on the demand. If your wish of airline Captains making 75K while living in expensive metro areas like NY, LA, ORD, BOS, or MIA comes true, I'm moving into a cave.
411A, In AZ a firefighter can make 100k in his 9 year on the job. A UPS truck driver is up in salary too. It is a supply and demand issue. The supply will react in a delayed manner if you got your wish. The major airline pilot job is still living off its long gone reputation of the 1960's and 1970's (remember when you couldn't get hired?). Throw in a 75K top pay, then watch the airlines cry about turnover costs and wage pressures not to mention hangar and taxi "rash" costs.
411A,
As a side note, during the negotiations of the last AA pilots contract (1997), we offered to fly the regional jets at AA at a pay level and workrules competitive with the regional industry, without any current limitations, and with a clause limiting future pay raises.
AA management said GFY's.
They instead ordered a fleet 44 seater EMB's instead of 50 seaters, (no limitation in numbers under our contract), an airplane which had to be certified for AA alone, no doubt for the same price or more than the 50 seater. It also has to have limited resale value for accounting purposes. They chose to fly with 6 less seats of revenue for the same aquisition costs when any increase of AA crewed 50 seater costs would have been less than the loss of revenue from those seats.
Shall we go into the artificial price of the RJ jets? Airplanes that could not have been developed without goverment subsidies shouldering the intial R&D. Spare me the free market crap. That talk is almost as ridiculous as my fellow americans claiming the "free market" cost of crude oil to the US is only $20-25 a barrell. (that is the price after subtracting the costs of 12 aircraft carriers, 1,000,000 soldiers, and 250 F15's to babysit the ME.)
Since when has any airline been interested in a free market?
Last edited by PPRuNe Towers; 18th Aug 2002 at 22:52.