Originally Posted by Airsupport

There won't be 9 when it is all said and done. And they don't pay management salaries. They pay a set fee. How management decides to spread that money throughout the company is their business.

They are also not supporting the operations. You all have to remember the most important thing here. The contract carriers get their payment. What the contract carrier does with that money is their own business. The contract carrier has to run their own HR. They have to hire their own people. They have to have all the things it takes to run an airline and they have to do it on just the money they get for their contract. That is why they want to pay ground workers nothing. That is why they fight pilots on contracts. If it's not in the contract with the major they are out of luck. I promise you no major is just giving money away to regional's to help them stay afloat. If one regional isn't able to keep their business running on the money they are making off the contract then they aren't able to fulfill their contract and the major pulls out.

That is why Delta nor any other major want to own their own regional's. If they own a regional whose costs are out of control then they have to eat the losses. If they have a contract carrier who isn't performing and meeting the goals on the already agreed to terms of payment then they cut them off and find someone who is willing to do the work. Pinnacle nor any other regional doesn't get paid extra to cover all those things you listed. They get paid what they are entitled to in the contract and not a dime more.

This is also why Delta is getting rid of their ground workers. It is so much more cheaper for them to outsource the work and pay a flat fee than it is to take on the additional burden of more employees with more needs. They pay the ground service company a flat fee and the ground service people hire employees at 6 bucks an hour than 10 or 11 that mainline used to pay.


Remember the key here is Delta is not supporting any of their regional's except for the wholly owned. They told ASA, SkyWest, Pinnacle, etc here is your contract. It is only good for X amount of money. Then those companies take those payments and run their airlines how they see fit. If you hire one employee at Delta and pay them $40,000.00 a year the real cost to delta is more like $65,000.00 once benefits and all the other federally mandated programs are paid for per each employee. If you give the money to a contractor who doesn't offer retirement, medical, pass, or any of those other benefits or they offer cheap versions of them then the company can hire that person for $40,000.00 a year and the real cost will be closer to $50,000.00 for the outsourced company. That is how bids for contracts are won. Who can do it cheaper than we can. And so far in the U.S. you can do it cheaper almost anywhere else than here. That is how the majors see it and thats why none of this will change. If they can outsource it then they will. That means no pensions, no benefits, no hr headaches. If the people they outsource to want to offer that stuff then so be it. If they don't the major doesn't care. They aren't going to pay them anymore than if they did. Outsourcing is all the rage in this country right now and there is no end in sight.