Originally Posted by
alfaromeo
We reduced the allowed number of aircraft 51 seats or higher to a number below the total numbers allowed under each separate contract.
Our average compensation (for all 12,000) 2008-2012 will have gone up 27.5% when you include DC compensation. At SWA it's 7.5%, CAL 1.5%, UAL 1.5%, AMR 1.5%, LCC 0%. If you count non-traditional compensation like stock the numbers favor us even more.
Why did you leave TWA? Was it because 3 years out of bankruptcy their contract was second best in the industry? How long did it take Pan Am to get the second best in the industry? Never. How about Continental? It's 20 years since their last bankruptcy and they still haven't reached #2. UAL, LCC, ......
No one is happy where we are, but you make it seem like we are stumbling while the rest of the industry is thriving. That is not the case. Look at the history of carriers coming out of bankruptcy and tell me which one did better than we did.
Sure SWA is doing well after they undercut the industry by 20-30% for 25 years so their company could grow with no debt. Do you recommend we undercut the industry by 20-30% until 2035 so that Delta can grow with no debt, just so we can be like SWA? If not, then we have to continue to pound away so we can be the first airline to leave bankruptcy and then get to number one. There are no magic bullets, only hard work and persistence.
Interesting. So our 2004 (C2K) MD-88 Captain rate was $237.37. At an average of 80 hours per month, that would be an annual income (W-2) of $228k. The current SWA Captains average annual compensation is over $230k. You say their pay increases by 7.5% from 2008 to 2012. Well, for their pay to increase by 7.5% and end up at $230k over that time period, it would had to have started at $215k. $215k is about 6% below $228k (our C2K pay). But yet you say that SWA was undercutting the industry (which would include us) by 20-30%. Your numbers just aren't quite adding up.
And I left TWA because I saw no future there. The fact that 2nd year pay at the time at Delta was an increase from what I was making at TWA was just another item for the "pros" column on my pros and cons decision sheet.