To jump to the assistance of Notso here are a number of 'benchmarking' statistics that may help his argument.
Labour Cost
For airlines, labour cost as a percentage of total operating cost is typically:
Europe 25-30%
USA 35-40%
Of that labour cost, pilot costs are in the region of:
Europe 20-23%
USA 28-31%
In British Airways, pilot costs as a percentage of
total labour costs are
13%
Pilots per Aircraft (A key measure of our productivity)
British Airways 11.8 Long Haul + Short Haul
British Midland 11.5 Not including Long Haul
Britannia 15.2 LH+SH
Virgin 16.4 All Long Haul
Iberia 12.4 LH+SH
KLM 16.2 LH+SH
Lufthansa 13.2 LH+SH
Air France 15.2 LH+SH
That would appear to answer all the arguments. BA's woes have
nothing to do with the pilots
- Productivity or
- Agreements
Whether the company would be better off starting with a
tabula rasa is up to the city. They could easily ask the board to placate us. But the board aren't leaning on our managers who appear to be just as antagonistic as they have always been.
I have 8 years in this company and if I were to extend the decline in status that my profession has seen in that time, by the end of this decade I imagine I shall be deemed unskilled labour on minimum wage. We all know that's not the case but if you set my managers a 'performance related pay-challenge', they'll take it. If we don't retaliate, they'll get their bonus.
Enough.