Originally Posted by
spottedcow
Yes. They are sustainable.
The simple fact is that even at these rates, pilot labor costs are a fraction of the total costs associated with operating a flight on a per hour basis.
We are not overpaid.
Put 120 pax on an airplane with a 1.0 block. Pay both pilots $500/hour. $8.33 of each seat on that flight goes to paying the pilots.
As others said, yes.
The incremental cost of these raises isn't that large a slice of the pie. Statistically any time you raise ticket prices by even $1 you will see a drop in bookings and at some point it's a big drop. But I don't think we're anywhere near the point where it becomes significant. Travel demand is way up post-covid, and that may well linger for a good while... a lot of folks now appreciate freedoms they used to take for granted.
Also we have some new-found efficiencies in airline systems... all the flex and remote -workers can now combine business with pleasure trips and travel on days which used to be dead. Keeping more jets moving and full on Tuesdays and Saturdays is nice fringe benefit for efficiency.