Originally Posted by
nicholasblonde
AND AE already has a highly experienced (albeit high cost) group of pilots and FOs at the company who don't want to leave (otherwise they would have easily already went to a major/UPS/FedEx)...if Virgin did that, they could put those high-dollar AE senior guys on bigger, newer airframes, thus reducing the per pax per mile cost relative to flying ERJs. Then the guys on the ERJs would be more junior...so overall, Virgin America + AE could actually outcompete AA...newer more fuel efficient large aircraft flown by VA mainline (instead of AAs MD-80s) creating a place for the senior AE pilots to go, lower costs on the ERJ routes due to more junior pilots, and dominance in the caribbean, which could also cross-feed both Virgin domestic and Virgin Atlantic's tourist travelers. Not to mention Virgin has plenty of cash to make it happen, even if it's a long-term play...just look at Virgin Nigeria...that's definitely a long-term play with plenty of risk involved...Virgin's business strategy has always been founded on taking opportunities that more conservative companies are too risk-averse to take. I could see Branson pushing for something like this through back channels, even if VA has been forced to distance itself from the Brits.
As much as you would like to believe it, pilot wages are a very small amount of the equation in terms of cost. Here is an example for: An airliner pulls up to gate, engines running and burning a significant amount of fuel. If you are at a good airline you as a pilot are still getting paid. You are waiting there because there arent enough $7 an hour rampies to marshall you in. You finally get parked and wait another ten minutes for a jet bridge jockey (probably making 10 an hour) to pull the bridge up. In this twenty minute period the company has paid for twenty extra minutes of flight crew wages, and probably ten minutes of $100 dollar a barrel of oil/gas. This happens an average of three to four flights a day per aircraft, multiplied to by 365 days per year. Lets just say the average flight crew combined is making $110 an hour, and this delay results in an extra hour of block time per day. 110 x 365 = 41000 ish. Now lets say that it is a fleet of 50 aircraft, which results in a yearly cost of 2.1 Million. Now if we were to take the same scenario and add fuel into the equation. Lets say the burn on the ground is 1200lbs per hour, which is about 171 gallons of fuel. Now lets take jet A at $4.00 a gallon. So approximately $680 per hour of fuel burn at a gate. 680 x 365 = $249,660 for one aircraft per year to wait for rampies (remember these are $7 an hour rampies) 249, 660 per aircraft for a 50 aircraft fleet results in 12,483,000 in cost. 2.1 million in pilot wages vs. 12.4 million for fuel cost, all because most companies wont staff there ramps properly. Do you still believe that a senior pilot group is hurting a company? These numbers arent 100% accurate but they are pretty damn close. If you put the kool aid down for a few days its amazing how clear some things become.