Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Exactly, The big point missed in all the talk about DCI is that you can only bring the flying back in house if you can do it within a few percentage points of the costs at the regional carriers. If you can't the entire process is doomed to fail and you lose not only those jobs but the feed. Its a fine line about where you can make the cost issue work. I think it was crossed with the E-170/175. The company would disagree. Regardless if your going to convince the company to bring that flying back you have to produce a solid economic plan on cost and how you will equal the current regionals. There is a reason why all the airline managements fight the unions tooth and nail on this issue and its not that they hate pilots. Its cost pure and simple.
That bar has moved significantly, but we can't even get the MEC to study the question. They don't want to examine the economics as they CURRENTLY exist.
The game of the next 24 months is not that of the last 24, nor the 10 years before that. FTDT will ravage the regionals, because their bag of scheduling tricks, like scheduled reduced rest and 16 hour duty days, are going out the window.
Their ONLY way to mitigate crew costs is to reduce pay and benefits. Yet they already find it VERY difficult to recruit people to work for their bottom basement wages...and yet here comes the 1,500 hour rule to haunt their dreams.
The game has changed. The only one singing from the old hymnal seems to be DALPA.
Nu