Originally Posted by
3inchesOfFury
We were utilizing our A/C at 16 hours a day and now has dropped to around 10 because of having to reduce schedules. We don’t have the bodies to fly the new aircraft coming in. You pay market rate, our attrition will slow, hiring will be where it should and AC utilization with get back to more profitable levels.
I’m amazed at how few people - even airline pilots - understand this. Airline flying is a capital intensive business.
I’m sure we are getting the 33 new aircraft at less than the 101 million apiece list price but even so, that)s $2 billion plus worth of inventory coming in, and just letting it sit there costs serious money, not just tied up in lease or bond costs, but liability insurance, maintenance, parking fees.
As far as operating costs, a 321 with a crew of two pilots and five cabin crew costs about $10,000 an hour (depending on current fuel prices) to fly. The pilots account for less than 5% of that.