Originally Posted by
ewrbasedpilot
Great comments, but a bit "out there". No one has a problem with a company making a profit............that's what they're supposed to do. It's when they are making a profit that is so totally outrageous. That's the problem. Exxon made more profit in ONE QUARTER, than all the airlines put together since THEIR INCEPTION. THAT is the problem. We are paying $120 a bbl for crack crude for jet fuel. Why do the airlines have to pay so much more a bbl? In order for CAL to raise ticket prices, they'd have to do it EVERY DAY to keep up with the skyrocketing price of jet fuel. You think that'd be economical? We have too many "spoilers" in this industry that are willing to cut everyone elses throat and that creates more problems. As far as "free market"........we seem to have a lot of things being dictated to us lately.
EWR PILOT- It's the airlines' own fault if they can't contol their own supply of seats and price them accordingly. They have now sown the seeds of their own destruction through the glut of RJ's they have created by "doing what everyone else is doing" so that now we have smaller aircraft that burn more fuel per seat clogging the airports and airways. Doesn't sound to me like the airline "managers" were ahead of the curve on that one. They turned their backs on Business 101 concerning UNIT COSTS and became addicted to their outsourcing agenda and have ruined the industry fundamentals and customer service, and now we pay the price.
ALPA, your agent, even organized and represented the very pilots who took your job and flew your routes. They made deals for mainline pilots to be outsourced to the regional level and funded those airplanes with busted retirement plans. At first it was "one level of safety", now it's "one level of service" soon to be followed by "one level of compensation and QOL". I don't know of any other "profession" that would put up with that garbage.
Meanwhile, the Oil Industry managers saw the trends a long time ago, and stopped increasing expensive refinery capacity, have NO INTENTIONS of ever building another one (why bother), and so remain profitable by CONTROLLING THEIR COSTS as well as the supply of THEIR PRODUCT. You should be holding the Oil Industry UP as an an EXAMPLE of how to run a SUCUESSFUL BUSINESS to the nitwits who run our industry.
Shares of Exxon have almost tripled in the last 5 years after a very long stagnation period where oil prices were to everyone's liking, what's the average airline stock done?
Who's responsible for THAT? JP