Originally Posted by
evilboy
Let me ask this general question.
What makes us so "expensive"?.
In comparison to some other wholly owend -PSA- and other independents -Air Midwest-, who happened to operate strictly the 200 and whose pay is not much different from Comair's -not by much-. They also have been around for quite a while, hence their percentage of lifers compares to Comair's, they have the same type of contract we do -pay for departure-, what makes us so expensive?.
One thing we have most other people don't is the "third" party ground handler sudsidiary, which brings a lot of revenue.
So again, somebody enlighten me and tell -by comparison-, why are we so expensive?.
Take a look at our pilot seniority list and/or the FA list. Hundreds of pilots and flight attendants were hired before I was even born.... Add that to the fact that they are topped out on the pay scale and you have the recipe for a top heavy, expensive labor cost. Most of the cost issues in the GO and other areas have been solved with downsizing the support operation to our current fleet size... but if you compare us with other airlines like Mesaba, Mesa, Chautauqua, etc, our pilot group is on average much older on the seniority scale directly impacting our cost. Until these guys leave for other jobs or retire, it will continue to be that way.
The guys at other carriers like PSA, etc... are generally younger (I think) because the more senior guys are not committing to 'lifer' status there and moving on to majors, fracs, etc... But I could be wrong, maybe this is just a sneaky management tactic to ruffle things up..... OH has made a lot of cuts recently, so we should be in a position to be competitive with other carriers.