Originally Posted by
AK26
It seems like you want to speed up your airline's demise. Salaries are 25-30% of revenue, your largest fixed/semi-fixed cost by far, and even with the contract being well below competitors, Frontier can't turn a profit or generate any cash. And now, not only do you think that the airline is in position to raise your salaries significantly, but you want to do so by starting a public fight??
Btw, consumers don't really care about how much their pilots earn, and Frontier pilots earn enough that nobody is going to feel sorry for them anyway. The fact that your union reps aren't doing this is proof that you have levelheaded, reasonable reps who don't want to burn the whole thing down like you seemingly do. Would you rather have a 20% higher salary and then have your airline go under in a few quarters, or the status quo, and hope the airline can survive for longer?
And also, while I have tremendous respect for all commercial pilots, this idea that pilots are the backbone of the airline isn't quite accurate...passengers just want to get from point A to point B safely, and have enough faith in the FAA (and most governmental organizations worldwide), that they don't do due diligence on specific pilots or airlines from a pilot training perspective. With a standardized union contract, pilots are essentially a commodity, and are easily replaceable (usually for cheaper, given how seniority works!) There is no pilot shortage, and plenty of younger guys at various 91/135/regionals who would be happy to take your seat. Where is your negotiating leverage?
Yep not making any money yet some how Indigo is buying up airline all over the world. We don't have any money but we can pay to be over staffed, we can clearly afford high attrition. In fact we saved so much money on hotels we need to have pilots stay in hotels for 24+hrs for some reason. Cash was really tight so they could only afford to give the first year FO's a raise.
I am tired of these arguments. I was told this exact thing throughout my flying career. Time makes fools of us all, but when I hear this argument and think about what has happened in the last ten years. Time and Time again over and over reality has shown THAY DO HAVE THE MONEY they always had the money. the Problem is they rather spend it on something else. That is the prevailing attitude until their profits are threatened. Then suddenly and we find out they do have them Money. and that they always had the money. You want proof Bid for reserve and WITNESS the actions of crew scheduling. It will not take long for you to figure out that this is not an organization that is short on resources. Dysfunctional yes but apparently they can afford to be dysfunctional. That is what our low pay rates provide. excessive staff, the ability to staff any flying with premium in minutes and the ability to squander resources with some of the most ridiculous assignments imaginable. no need or even effort to improve schedule efficiency. These are not actions of a company under any financial pressure. If Indigo was genuinely not making any profit they would have sold Frontier a long time ago. Yet here we are. The difference between what you read in a book and what you see in reality. They should be the same , but they are not. Information has been used to control people for a long time. Which is fine with good info we all can make sound decisions the problem is your not getting good info. your getting the info that will make you fall in line drinking the koolaid so to speak.
This company will send any one of us down the river in a hart beat. As far as I am concerned they can pull it together and figure out how to pay us or they can sell us. I don't care ,but I am not going to finance this kind of incompetency with my labor for the rest of my career
Also please tell me that you do not work for the F9 Union.