Originally Posted by
NewA320Driver
"As the ULCC model proliferates it only makes sense to codeshare if they can make more money by not using their own jets and their own pilots (us)."
The answer is they can't. If it's such a money maker why aren't they doing it now? Because getting a few dollars per seat while F9 does the flying is not the way to run a profitable airline.
It may not make sense now but some day it might. As the market gets more saturated on certain city pairs one day it may make more sense to code share than beat each other to death on that route or pull out of the market. Maybe domestic narrow body it may never but perhaps long haul international it does to feed the domestic fleet. Ask a JetBlue guy how many wide body's they would have if it weren't for code sharing. I can tell you factually they would have had A330s already.
Maybe you don't want to do that flying, that's fine, but if it's done by our pilots it only will improve your seniority on the narrow body. Just because spirit of today doesn't codeshare doesn't mean the spirit of 10 or 20 years from now will not. We will probably have three or four different CEOs in that time. 20 years from now in the sweet spot of my career is not the time when I want to see the pilot group whither on the vine when we could have been still growing organically. Also if they can send the flying elsewhere in the future it lowers your leverage in future negotiations. If they can codeshare out the flying and stagnate the list they have no incentive to give you more money because they will move the airplanes anyway. If you have that flying locked down they can't move them without you. Scope is everything!