Originally Posted by
slowplay
I believe your analysis to be flawed. AF isn't our competition for flying. That was removed from the equation in the JV. The other two alliances and other airlines are our competition.
CMR and ASA have very similar payrates. All of CMR A's are at or near the highest rate, while many of ASA A's are not. CMR's pilot costs (and total labor costs across all work groups) are much higher than ASA's because of their comparitive longevity. So instead of growing like ASA, CMR shrank.
Unless flying at an airline with a unique fleet or training footprint (i.e. all 737, all Airbus), there is no truth to the "lower training costs" associated with LBP. Unless they are rostered by their company (which I really don't want), it only inverts the training pyramid as pilots get senior enough to hold desirable flying.
From a pilot perspective, LPB takes two factors in career decision (pay vs QOL) and converts them to one. That's great for the uber senior...not so much for the junior.
fwiw.
Some say the competition may have been removed, but the pulldowns effect both sizes but are not equal. Growth and downsizing effect our block hrs more. Truth. We do not "compete" as you state for flying in the JV as it is metal neutral with a "production balance," but we do compete for gauge of aircraft, and due to the Import-Export bank advantage they have, they will get what Delta pilots see as the highest paying positions due to economic advantages. It is also advantageous for the JV as a whole to have them fly the bigger jets. It equates to less positions at AF where they get more in a Gross W-2 then we do, and as a result we have more positions at a lower pay than they would be over there. The reason ESK's work for the companies is clear. They kept jobs here, but eliminated the potential for the largest jets to arrive here at DAL em masse.
On the LBP I am not going to argue that it helps the senior more than the junior, but the junior are looking at it with a keen eye due to the asinine stagnation that they have seen over the last decade. Most are QOL driven and have no desire to do certian flying, and as a result want the pay of WB flying on lower jets. I was actually really surprised to see how many Reps and ALPA guys in general were open to this idea.
I do not know if it is a deal good enough to embark on, but given how the AF JV will work out, the benefit is that we would create more positions at the highest pay. That goes for left and right seats.