Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Years ago the revenue generation per flight 737 flight hour was compared to a 777 and the difference was staggering. In the tense 2000 contract negotiations at Delta the CEO stated he did not mind paying a 777 CA $500 per hour as the airframe could easily support it. The problem he said was if he paid that we would demand 400 an hour for a 737 CA and it could not generate the revenue needed.
In 2019 SWAPA financial analysis concluded that SWA could afford to double pilot salaries and still maintain a positive profit margin. Having all 10,000 pilots qualified to fly every flight provides a tremendous cost advantage over the legacy business model and is a big part of the reason why the company has never suffered an annual loss until covid. A Southwest 737 won’t generate anywhere near the revenue of a widebody but it also doesn’t cost anywhere near a legacy narrowbody to operate either.