Too many quotes to make the effort.

1. Because the FAA wont let you is a very good reason for why farming out the air routes is not a very good business model.

2. I asked my guy who signs his paycheck and he is paid by a guy who has a contract with fedex, not fedex. To the long list of other contractor fedex uses add the bus drivers. Very similar setup to the fedex ground contractors do they have another means of delivering the pilots to the acft?

3. Franchisee and sub contracting are different animals. But a similar species. Mcdonalds does own and run some restaurants. They could survive without franchisees, but their costs would go way up. The franchise system provides Mcdonalds with a way to expand their product availabilty in a way that is transparent to the customer. When you buy a burger or your ground package gets delivered you dont know (or, more importantly, care) if you are dealing with a corporate employee or someone under contract to the corporation. But you do know (and care) that the product is backed by the corporation.