Originally Posted by
herewego
Now you just need to expand that Revenue per seat mile and equate it to the number of seats, and how far those seats will go in a typical day.
Even though a 777 and an RJ fly at roughly the same speed the 777 pilot moves many more seats over a longer distance in the same time interval that we get paid for. The RJ may get just as much per seat mile, but it is only generating 50-76 seats worth of money to hand to the pilots instead of the 314-396 seats that a 777 moves. Yes we move just as many passengers as the 777 in a day, but with more legs. WHich means more taxi time where seat miles are effectively 0.
A 6 hour payday on a CJR will mean 3-6 legs, which will mean at least 1.5 hours of that 6 hours is taxiing, thus not generating revenue.
Then how much time is spent on those 3-6 legs climbing at a slower speed, descending into the pattern and approach and landing at a slower speed, all while that 777 is cruising along at altitude at .84 for the majority of it's day.
Yes the regional pilots work harder than, in the same environments (or worse) as, into and out of the same airports as the major pilots, but economics just don't support paying the RJ guy the same as the folks flying the bigger metal per hour. Wish it were not true and I'd get a huge raise, but my meager economics understanding wasn't learned from a Berkeley professor so it's just a bit more realistic.
Let’s do this, the 50 seat jet on that route makes $300 per seat while the 777 makes makes 500 per seat (averaging selling half the first class seats). 50x300=$15000 revenue for the single RJ flight, and 300x500=150000. So the 777 makes a bunch more for the single flight, but in the 10 hours the 777 is doing that one flight(including the loading and unloading) the RJ did 7 1 hr flights generating $105000 in revenue. Now let’s look into costs, the RJ captain$75hr, fo$45hr, and fa$25 hr can stay with the plane and work all 7 hours of flights over the 10 hour day which brings total crew cost to $145 or $1450 for the full 10 hours. The 777 will need 1 captain $350hr 2FOs$230hr ea, and at least 6fa at $25hr. Which brings the hourly cost to $960 per hour or $8160 for the 8.5 hour flight. Next is fuel the 50 seater burns 3000lbs hr max for 7 hours means that it used 21,000lbs(3230 gallons) . The 777 burns at least 13000 lbs an hour for a total of 110500lbs(17000 gallons) at $2 gallon the RJ used $6460 while the 777 used $34000 in fuel.
Now the totals
777 brought in $150000
Spent $8160 on crew and $34000 on fuel
Revenue after very basic operating cost $107840
The regional brought in $105000
Spent $1450 on crew and $6460 on fuel
Revenue after basic operating cost is $97090
So over the course of the day the 777 brought in slightly more than the regional, this was assuming best case numbers for the 777 and worse case for the regional. Averaged out per hour of flight the revenue after basic operating cost is with in 10% of a 777 yet pilot wage is 5-8x less per hour