You're right. Not a perfect choice of words. What I'm attempting to convey is that I'm trying to give a little bit of the benefit of the doubt to the guys who keep saying the average is 87. Kind of like meeting someone halfway. I suspect reality is that a typical line pilot at Delta averages about 75 hours... especially when you average in reserves at the 70 hour reserve guarantee.

So thanks for pointing this out. I'll stop trying to be "fair" and just stick to what I really think from now on.

So with that said, let's look at what I think is the true comparison between Delta pilot and SWA pilot W2:

Delta 12 year MD-88 Captain - 75 hours per month at $167/hour = W2 of $150,300.

SWA 12 year Captain - 105 TFP per month at $186.06/hour = W2 of $234,436.

Percentage increase needed to bring the W2 of the Delta MD-88 Captain up to the W2 of the SWA Captain = 56%.