Originally Posted by
Mason32
Ever thought that without the subcontractors, the mainline companies woud have to buy the smaller planes, and hire more pilots, and for the first time in a long time charge a price that covers costs instead of getting th esavings on the backs of employees willing to work for nothing.
Mainline companies used to operate small aircraft. What happened? They found out that it was too expensive to operate small aircraft on thin demand routes at mainline pay/benefits and still make a profit(competition). Instead of losing market share completely, they found a way to reduce total operating costs by subcontracting this flying, which in essence created a C-scale pay but the number of jobs grew. You can have mainline carriers operating small aircraft, but this will reduce the number of total jobs at all levels.
It is not as simple as charging $5 more for a ticket to cover costs.