Wino (Union Goon): Quite right.
411A and Gang: You all made at least some fairly plausible points, whether vague and very subjective, or not. However, after the Continental strike ended back in the 80's and old "Frankie Smooth Talk", known also on Wall Street as the "airline builder", had merged People's and New York Air into CO, the pilot and other employee salaries were relatively low. Was this not the case? Never mind the benefits. Why then did the airline not become the most successful US carrier?
If low pilot salaries were/are the primary factor, as many of you claim so often on Pprune, success should have resulted. There is no direct correlation between average or even below average pilot salaries and having a reliable, profitable carrier. Come on now, quick sound-bytes from the (Republican) GOP anti-labor campaign platform can't begin to describe the overall picture of an airline, and neither can I, even in a few paragraphs.
Could the low morale (what mgmt attitudes contributed to such?)and crude merger of seniority lists have helped lead to CO's lack of success? Could Southwest or JetBlue have succeeded with Frankie or Icahn or Larry Risley (Mesa "fame"), or a Brady (Express One) at the helm? But then, what could employees know? Most have no MBA from any business school. How about Steven Wolf as a true White Knight? Maybe Continental's rapid upper mgmt turnover years ago was an indicator of internal troubles. How about reading some old 'Aviation Week & ST' magazines from that time? Some checking up on DOT Admin Judges' reportedly favorable rulings on Texas Air Corp, and just which company the judges went to work for right after these very favorable ruling$, might be a bit enlightening: was there any similarity there with the classic "Beltway Bandits"? Or the "alleged" FAA Western Division's policy (marching in lockstep with Ronald) to avoid serious meddling with airline ops there during the strike?
Even with such external political help from the highest levels, or in spite of it, success depends on much more than low labor costs.
Back to salaries.