You missed the entire point of what was being discussed. We were discussing if shyt hit the fan. There's a difference. Usually when that happens you can bet on things like spare flying etc going out the window. Everything you've said is sitting on current conditions. That's fine. There are people easily doing the same thing here. The only numbers you can use when comparing are the guarantees. Both places have all the flying you could want currently. 75hrs guarantee is the standard for both places.


It's raining over here and I had the day off so I figured I'd plug some numbers to get a more in depth look at things. I know there are other factors such as work rules and when who pays overtime for what, however, this comparison is based solely on per hour numbers with as much effort as I was willing to put forward. Anyone is more than welcome to take things deeper if they'd like.

10yr CHQ ERJ 135(37 seats)= --- $68----------- $1.84 per seat/hr
10yr CHQ ERJ 145(50 seats)= --- $77:----------- $1.54 per seat/hr
10yr PNCL CRJ 200(50 seats)= --- $72: ----------- $1.44 per seat/hr
10yr XJT ERJ 145(50 seats)= --- $78: ------------ $1.56 per seat/hr
10yr AE CRJ 700(78 seats)= --- $82: ----------- $1.05 per seat/hr
10yr Comair CRJ 700(78 seats)= --- $78:----------- $1.00 per seat/hr
10yr SKW CRJ 900(86 seats)= --- $78: ----------- $.906 per seat/hr
10yr Compass 175 (88 seats)= --- $80: ----------- $.90per seat/hr
10yrs RAH on 175(88)= --- $88:----------- $1.00per seat/hr
10yr JetBlue 190(114 seats)= --- $96: ----------- $.81 per seat/hr
10yr US air 195 (122 seats)= --- $95: ----------- $.77per seat/hr

For a look at the real majors here are some numbers.

*Note: Couldn't find data on exact seating per aircraft for all the companies. To keep things fair I took max class 3 seating numbers, we know most places have class II and class I seating as well which would lower the seat count and up the pay per seat/hr. These numbers are to max body count capability per aircraft. 777 are of the -200 series to give max pay per seat.

10yr Frontier A319 (142 seats)= --- $146 ----------- $1.02 per seat/hr
10yr Airtran 737-7(149 seats)= --- $144 ----------- $.96 per seat/hr
10yr SouthW 737-7(149 seats)= --- $194 ----------- $1.30 per seat/hr
10yr AA 737-8 (189 seats)= --- $161 ----------- $.85 per seat/hr
10yr Delta 777(305 seats)= --- $185 ----------- $.61 per seat/hr
10yr CA 777 (305 seats)= --- $187 ----------- $.62 per seat/hr
10yr AA 777 (305 seats)= --- $199 ----------- $.65 per seat/hr
10yr UA 747-4 (416 seats)= --- $181 ----------- $.43 per seat/hr
10yr NW 747-4(416 seats)= --- $174 ----------- $.41 per seat/hr


I tried to make a graph of the data but I never was very good with M$ Excel. I did manage to crunch some numbers and create my own graph. Based on the pay of our 88 seat 175s we are not out of the ordinary. The graph is almost linear. As a matter of fact our 175 CA pay picks it up slightly in it's area. We are by no means dragging the industry down with us. We are right inline where we should be based on the amount of seats our aircraft holds. Doesn't mean we don't want more, however, to say the guys that fly them have a big case of SJS, while sometimes true, can't really be said based on the numbers.

One of the things that makes the 50 seat RJs so inefficient is the fact that they have to pay more per seat/hr for the guys to fly them. Everyone who's flying a 50 seat RJ complaining about the CRJ 700/900 and EMB 170-175 pay needs to realize they are being paid well above the average $$$ per seat due to the small amount of seating. That's one of the reasons why people feel it's very difficult to operate an airline solely on 50 seat aircraft. If everyone wants to play ball by those rules then our ERJ-135 guys could throw a little mud at everyone since they make the highest pay per seat/hr by far with $1.84 where xjt is $1.56 for 50 with us a $1.54 at 50. To say "RAH needs to pay way more on the 175" would mean the whole industry would need to pay more as we are right in line where we should be.

I think people just feel like complaining because they expect their 50seat pay to be proportional for the rest of their careers which is just crazy talk. Using our ERJ-135 numbers the ERJ-145 guys should be making $85.68 per hour in order to not be screwing us over. A 747-400 would have to make $640.64.