Originally Posted by
Qotsaautopilot
I’ll say it again. Pilot pay never made or broke an airline. Highest labor cost at an airline but tiny cost in running an airline.
Never said made or broke, but even if everyone is on the same pay scale a new startup where everyone is starting at year one has a considerable personnel cost advantage over a legacy with a more mature work force.
Assuming both have the Delta A220 pay scale, the difference between a crew composed of a six year captain and three year FO compared to a first year captain and FO is still ~ $120/hr.
Assuming 10 hrs utilization a day 365 days a year, that’s North of $400k per aircraft per year which for a 60 aircraft fleet would be $24 million annually.
Make or break? Probably not, but neither is the $24 million exactly chicken feed either.