Originally Posted by
Left Handed
I think we need to look at the big picture here. I recently did a flight Houston to Las Vegas. Let's look at the numbers. I'm an 11 year captain and I make $165 an hour (way too low). It took three hours to do the flight. I made $495. Now divide that by 182 seats, and then divide that by 1272 miles. The answer you get is .00213 CASM for me. That's 2 thousandths of a penny per mile I'm costing the company. If I were to get a raise to $250 an hour, my portion of CASM would be .00312. The cost would only go up .0009 cents. Now, you also have to include the FO at roughly 2/3 of that. When the company says our CASM is around 5.5 and says it would go up by any appreciable amount they are lying. Even if we all got a raise to $500 an hour, our CASM would still be under six cents. Yes, this may be oversimplified and there are intangibles that I cannot quantify here. But to say a raise to industry-standard pay would cripple the company, is flat out wrong. We would still have one of the lowest CASMs in the industry, and one of the highest percent profit. And by the way my retro check is approaching $160,000 and climbing.
Not calling you out specifically, your post had CASM in it.
Good summary. Looking at the big picture though. Traditionally airline costs are 30% for airplanes, 30% for fuel, and 30% for payroll. The first two items the company won't be able to do anything about. The last one though, being the ULCC like it is with low RASM, that's where it'll need to be significantly lower than non ULCC competitors. If they staffed and paid the airline (not just the pilots) like a legacy airline, that profit would shrink away rather quickly.
Hell, even the janitors in Miramar, if they weren't outsourced, can come up with fancy charts and numbers that say if Spirit paid the 10 of them $1 million a year each, it'd still be huuuugely profitable company. But it just ain't gonna happen.
I think you're the only ones counting that retro check, because I doubt anyone cares.
The only thing that matters is what the mediators, arbitrators, the members of NMB, and the president thinks. And if Spirit has indeed proposed wages and work rules similar to it's counterparts, and if they consider the counterparts are Allegiant, Frontier, and Sun Country. There will never be a strike because the company will have deemed to be negotiating in good faith. I'm sure your union will do their best to compare itself to United, Delta, AA...etc, but once the revenue comparisons are laid out, I just don't see it happening.
Good luck though.