Originally Posted by
sailingfun
There will be cases where smaller aircraft will replace larger. The overall trend however is upsizing. It’s managements plan and is a virtual certainty industry wide given the basically fixed infrastructure with runways and gates. The company is making a substantial investment in the 777’s as we speak. They are going to be around for a long time. When they leave the fleet there will be a replacement. What is happening daily is MD88’s are being replaced with A321’s and 737-900’s. Some of the A330 Neo’s will replace 767’s. Our 737-800’s will almost certainly be replaced with A321neo’s.
None of those reasons is pilot cost. We are egotistical in assuming that a large portion of the cost to every flight is the pilot, it’s a key factor but not the determining factor. Let’s get pilot compensation at a set level that rewards us all and let management figure out what planes to fly on what routes. Let’s start with 2-3 levels of pay banding and go from there.