Originally Posted by
amcnd
If you know anything about sims. You can't ramp them up easy.. And there more mx pron then the real airplane!!
Originally Posted by
ClickClickBoom
Sims cost in excess of 7 mil, buildings aren't cheap either. Which is why you aren't running an airline. Pretty sure Inc owns all the SLC CRJ sims, and that isn't solving their problems. The industry is facing a pilot shortage that hasn't occurred since the mid '60s. They are 2 generations of management away from the collective memories that remember how that one played out.
Buying a few sims may work for the military who just take C130s full of cash and lose them. Private industry is slightly different.
I do know, and have extensive business experience pre-airlines...I made my money in the private sector, not the military
I'm looking at this as a strategic investment (with some risk). Somebody would have to run the numbers of cost vs. what the *expected* return/benefit would be. But I suspect that going forward responsiveness will open up a lot of opportunities. But if you maintain them and cycle them enough they could be ready when needed. Or just use them all routinely, but not at full capacity. Whole point being the nature of this industry could make it worth one's while to be ready to respond.
SKW didn't furlough anybody in 2009, if they had applied the same logic to sims they would be much better off today. This was predictable, everybody knew that after Dec 2012 movement was going to happen. It was also highly predictable that the bottom feeders would not be able to keep up...the only reason the mesas and gohjets have any new-hires is fast upgrades (assuming they can even staff what they got). If SKW could have snagged some more of that growth they would have been much more appealing to new-hires. Inc has turned down some growth recently because they couldn't be sure of staffing it and didn't want to over-promise and fail.