Originally Posted by
Hillbilly
How did you account for passengers who connect in a hub and fly more than one leg each way for their trips? That would increase the cost per passenger as well wouldn't it? I wouldn't think they would be very popular with passengers, but Travelnet has puked out 3 leg one way itineraries for me before when trying to get to certain locations.
I like that you are trying to paint this as being very easy to afford. I think that is a move which could be beneficial for the pilot group if it is accurately done and not a wag. Based on your descriptions on these boards, I am not confident your numbers have considered all of the variables which would give them a hint of accuracy.
Honestly, I hadn't thought of that. Good point. But I doubt it changes my conclusion by all that much.
First of all, I think I'm being generous with the $7 assumption for cockpit cost per flight segment per passenger. If my cost was $2.98 last year, and I did a lot of extra flying last year, then the average Captain is probably not a whole lot more than that. First Officers make approximately 60% of what a Captain makes? So if the average Captain at Delta is at, say, $3.50, and the average First Officer makes 60% of that... then that makes the total cost per flight segment per passenger $5.60. Of course, that assumes 2 pilots so that number would have to be adjusted up by some factor to account for those flights that have more than 2 pilots. In any case, I don't think $7 is far off. It might even be a little on the high side.
So make the metric "pilot cost per flight segment per passenger." I still don't think it significantly changes the conclusion. And that conclusion is that Delta can indeed afford to pay us at a level comparable in buying power to what they paid us throughout most of the 1980's, 1990's, and early 2000's. I don't have access to all the data. But the data I do have leads to what I think is a reasonable, common sense conclusion. Your mileage may vary.