Originally Posted by
Sink r8
If we had G&LP, and it cost as much to provide flight crews for a 747 as for a 767, the pilot side of the equation would favor a 747 over two 767's. FA's are rougly constant (1 FA for any 50 seats). Ground employees, like pilots, could be cut.
Bottom line: G&LP gives a discount per seat for larger airplanes. For a short period, you might see a boost in aggregate pay, then the natural evolution should be to larger aircraft, with less pilots.
It seems as if you assume that pilot costs are the predominant driving factor behind their choice of airframes. I highly doubt that it is much of a real consideration. In aggregate, maybe being that there are 11,000 or so of us, but as to whether they would do away with 767s in favor of a single 747 because of the slight improvement in employee costs doesn't hold water. Frequency is still a very real driving factor for marketing. One 747 a day to LHR instead of 4 or 5 767s would kill us.
And "G&LP" is not funny.