Originally Posted by
HVYMETALDRVR
MG doesn't care about the 200+/hr he just doesn't want to have to hire more than a skeleton crew of pilots. He's made it very clear he's hell bent against "soft pay" since its hard to predict the costs for future balance sheets. Unfortunately soft pay and more days off are EXACTLY what we need.
The union put chart awhile ago showing that for every 1 aircraft G4 only has 5 pilots, in comparison F9 has 1 aircraft for 9 pilots, the mainline carriers are between 11-14 pilots per aircraft. $200/hr is a drop in the bucket when you only have to hire half the pilots.
Plus what's money if your never home? Your wife or husband will just divorce you take it anyways... we need more days off and work rules badddddd.
I think "soft pay" is important and should be important to MG. I disagree that it would make predicting future costs difficult/impossible. For example: a min day pay of say 5 hours would force the schedules to be built with more efficiency. More efficiency equals more flight time and thus more days off for pilots. If there were a min day pay credit it would help in the prediction of costs down the line +/- 10% (which is a total spitball guess.)
As for pilot numbers we don't currently have the same amount of aircraft utilization that other carriers do. We don't do red eyes and I'm confident that our aircraft block hours don't match those of mainline carriers so I can see why we don't have 14 pilots per airframe. I do agree we need more pilots and with additional aircraft hiring should continue.
I'd definitely like to see a better bidding process that allows for folks to have some control over their schedule. I'd rather have the flexibility to bid for 70 hours of flying and not be forced to have 6 random days of reserve in the middle of what could be 3-4 day off sets. I think as the additional pilots come out of the schoolhouse and onto the line this is both reasonable and practical.
I am eager to see what our negotiating committee presents for us to vote on in the (hopefully near) future. Be safe and have fun!