What a load of bollocks this thread has been.
1. Employee costs are typically around a third of the total. Fuel is roughly another third, and the galaxy of minor items rounds out the other third. Give or take, depending on fuel price de jour, which is the real elephant in the room.
2. Employee costs are a function of legacy awards, which is not a pejorative phrase, by the way, and longevity of the business. LCC start-ups always age into a facsimile of what they once mocked. Just like my first wife. What was her name again?
3. There is nothing that our (what is the opposite of "learned"?) friend can say to twist the truth to suit: the part of the world which has money does not want to fly on a LCC, carry a Target bag or wear Adidas trousers. The part of the world that does is only occasionally relevant, and only sometimes cashed-up. Right now it is dwindling. The part of the world with money is the part that pays the bills, and is, generally speaking, more fun to take champagne baths with. Wheeee!
4. In a true LCC model, there is no natural floor to wages. If JQ was sold, or Tiger, the first thing on the agenda would be to ream out those pesky T & Cs of the staff. That means you, wasabi. Or whatever the hell your Qantas Angel screen name is.
5. Name me two LCCs that the above-average* punter would aspire to fly on again. One is Southwest, which perversely does not hate its staff. The other is a mythical being, like a unicorn.
6* above average was intentional. It means, by definition, the 3.7 Billion people who would prefer not to, thanks just the same, fly on your pathetic flying money-grab that is JQ, Ryan, etc.
7. My legacy brain can only fulminate for so long without a mandated drinking session. The rest of you can talk amongst yourselves for awhile and conjure up the other dozen reasons why I should be paid even more, and my LCC colleagues** should fund it.
8** yeah, right.
Last edited by Australopithecus; 23rd Aug 2014 at 05:24.
Reason: Grammar. The old-fashioned kind, with punctuation and everythang.