I wish pilot pay was that simple-fly plane, make money. In our world, even with most pilots represented by one union, we still have individual pilot groups negotiating with each airline's management.

Market cap (wall street's perceived value of a company) is a reflection of a company's earnings or earnings growth. Unless a company is a startup,
earnings do directly affect our upgrade time and our ability to negotiate a better contract. Look at F9. Do you think BB was able to extract concessions, because they were making money hand over fist? You know Alaska management will try to negotiate away the pilot's pension every time we negotiate a contract. As long as we are making money, the pension stays or they buy it from us.

Your airline's market cap does affect your upgrade time. I know there are legacies that have an older work force--AA can continue to lose money and you could still get your captain seat. Alaska has had relatively slow and steady growth. With the exception of a few years, one third of it's pilots every ten years. As long as we are making record profits, management is going to grow the airline as fast as possible (in relatively speaking). So far, they've grown ASMs by replacing smaller airplanes with bigger airplanes. With the delivery of the -900s, that will continue. As long as the current plan sticks, the fleet, and block hours will increase, thus lowering upgrade time.