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Old 12-08-2005, 04:01 PM
  #10  
Sr. Barco
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Joined APC: Feb 2005
Posts: 495
Talking Little old Southwest is ruining the industry!

Cutnrun--

I agree with many of your points. Yes, I'm relatively new to this career. I have a little over 12 years of flying for cargo, commuter, and now major airlines. What you don't know about SWA is that it is VERY easy to give away captain flying. I fly with senior guys all of the time and most of them are not flying 80 block hours a month. Not even close. It is very proprietary at SWA. You can give away to zero block hours or pick up to 100 block hours pretty easily. Trust me I don't want to fly 80+ block hours when I'm 50+ years old.

As far as agreeing to crappy work rules it could be said that you guys are really dragging down the industry. Why did you agree to work for $170/hour? Why do you have crummy rigs etc? I could easily say that your contract is jeapordizing mine. Come on, in the end management forces it on you and you know that. Big unions don't have the power anymore.

You're right, $190/hour might not be sustainable for us. I know this is a cyclical business and I budget accordingly.

"A 777 captain at american now makes much less than your 737 captain yet he is responsible for a butt-load more lives and a heck of a lot more expensive airplane."

Here's where you need to do some math. You might fly 320 pax in one day on one long leg in a 9-10 hour duty day. Follow that by a 24 hour layover and 320 pax home. That's 640 pax in 3 days. I flew 548 pax in one 9 hour duty day last week. I then flew 600 pax the next day (6 legs,100+ pax per leg) and about 400 pax on day three. That's 1548 pax in three days vs. your 640. Obviously fares have a major role here but how much revenue did you generate in three days vs.me?

And for your dentist, the poor guy has to work 3 1/2 days per week? I haven't worked over 3 days in a week in years! LOL!

Take care, respectfully,

S.B

Last edited by Sr. Barco; 12-08-2005 at 06:44 PM.
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