Here's my comment on her article:

Great article, Erika, but I think you left a few things out. One is that a big part of the problem is that passengers are addicted to low air fares. No one wants to pay what their travel is worth. Airfares are roughly the same as they were in the 70s, yet the dollar is a fourth the value it was then. Yet they constantly complain about poor service (much of it justified of course, and the over-compensation of executives is a whole 'nother conversation). The other problem you fail to mention is the structure of the industry regarding pilot experience. When a pilot leaves one airline, (or the military or other aviation industry) for whatever reason, they must start at the absolute bottom of the new one, regardless of the experience level. This is unlike nearly any other industry where there is an incentive, a reward, to be hired with experience and wisdom already gained. This becomes a weight around a pilot's neck - the higher they get, the greater their compensation, but the more they have to lose if they have to start over somewhere else. The company has them by the ....well, you know. So few pilots will speak out or try to correct wrongs. And there is little incentive for pilots with lots of experience, but with only a decade or two left in their lives that they can legally work as an airline pilot, to give up a high paying job with the government or some other industry, and start at the bottom with the airlines (at a poverty level, with kids to put through college), knowing they won't come close to making what they are in their present job.