Originally Posted by beancounter

If Alaska can't afford to pay it's pilots industry standard pay then it's already game over. I don't think you grasp the situation Alaska is in with the start of the biggest hiring boom we've ever seen. Let's say hypothetically that in a year or two Delta decides it's taking too long to kill Alaska in Seattle and they want to quicken the pace. They simply offer jobs to any Alaska pilots that want them, no interviews. Alaska would lose so many pilots they wouldn't be able to train them fast enough, the operation would meltdown, and the cash would start getting burned through. It already happened on a small scale at Horizon. AA alone is hiring 900 pilots next year and the year after and the year after.......Delta will probably hire more than that with their higher level of expansion. How many total pilots does Alaska have? How many with only a couple years invested in the Air Group? Are you grasping any of this?