Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Yawn.
Traditional LCC/ULCC business model doesn't involve hub n' spoke with regional feed anyway. They got scope easily because
1) It was worth something in negotiations.
2) The company didn't need it anyway. Although SWA probably wishes they had more flexibility today.
AS pilots probably could have got it on the cheap too pre-horizon, although I don't pretend to know all of the history.
I'm always disappointed by the legacy folks litany of excuses of why they don't have an industry standard contract. The crux of their argument is that "Alaska is different."
No, Alaska is not different, nor is it small. At 3,000 pilots, Alaska is bigger than America West was at the time when they acquired US Airways. Alaska is 50% the size of Northwest Airlines at its peak, which operated 7 different fleet types.
The consolidation of the majors has skewed perceptions and allowed the lie that
Alaska Airlines is a small airline that can't afford good work rules to perpetuate.
The excuse making of why Alaska lags behind in contracts needs to end. Today.