Originally Posted by
vroll1800
Some holes in your Swiss Cheese:
2) Growth = Income Gain. No argument there, except it is management, not the pilot group, who calls the shots on expansion. Recall that a few years ago, Delta and Southwest pilot groups voted down company's initial offer, and negotiated an improved TA2. During, and after that interim period, did either airline curtail or freeze their hiring or growth plans ? At the other end, from the early 80's forward there have been countless examples of pilot groups making concessions, yet their companies still filed bankruptcy, or went out of business. Point being that managements will do what they're going to do wrt expansion irregardless of how generous or stingy their pilot contact is.
3) Hotel Soft Time- Much of the airline world outside of Acmi does (sort of) pay you for hotel soft time. Ever hear of Trip Rigs, Minimum Pay Per Duty Period (MPDP), or Minimum Pay Per Day (MPD) ? Certainly helps with those low block/ high TAFB lines.
ATSG gets to pick which airline to send the growth, call it whatever you want (competition... whipsaw.. whatever) but it is not the same game the single carrier companies play.
Money gets moved around different ways, I do not care how my paycheck is divied up as long as my take home is in the ballpark, and has been noted a million times ABX gets a lot of soft pay that puts their end paycheck in the ballpark of the other ACMI guys. Also, "reasonable" does not mean there is no room for improvement.