Originally Posted by
flare next time
Maybe I've lost the plot, but as someone not at Spirit, I wanted some perspective from ya'll.
If the new agreement comes to fruition and the new pay rates come into effect, is there really much reason to leave Spirit for one of the big 3's? Aside from widebody options and perhaps some contractual issues that I'm not aware of, it seems like Spirit offers a great QOL with comparable pay.
To put it simply, why would someone leave Spirit, or why would someone stay?
Having widebodies doesn’t (or shouldn’t) just appeal to those who want to fly them. It helps narrowbody seniority a lot. So, a guy who is 60% on the delta list will likely have a much higher relative seniority as a NB CA or WB FO, everything equal (which it’s not). Throw in historically leading contracts at delta and lagging contracts at spirit, a better run airline with a much broader network, and of course profit sharing, and better retirement, better sick, and everything else, there’s not a lot of reason to stay at spirit or any other LCC/ULCC so long as upgrades are quick and retirements are in full swing at legacies. Spirit and jetblue both have young pilot groups with not many retirements in the next 10 years. Not to say the music won’t stop in this industry some day, but right now the math pretty heavily favors leaving.