Originally Posted by sailingfun

Our pay is a very large part of the operating expense of the aircraft. That is why managements fight so hard on the contracts. Remember this is a industry where a couple of percent advantage is huge. Pre 2004 pilot pay at Delta were over 15 percent of the cost to run a flight. Its around 9 percent now. Its one of the single largest controllable costs. Fuel is the largest cost. Pilots are probably second.

As far as management using orders to influence contracts here is Delta managements play sheet. When the contract negotiations heat up they will set up a series of road shows. They will talk all about their future fleet plans and how critical the contract is to this growth. They will trot out their 20 year old 100 seat power point presentation and tell all the co pilots how they will be Captains in 4 years if only Dalpa will cooperate. They will tell the Captains about how they are about to place the largest wide body order in history again if Dalpa would cooperate.
In some cases they have tied the order directly to the pay rate on a specific aircraft. The MD88 is a example. They were given a lower pay rate then the aircraft should have had on the condition the company purchase a bunch of them. This is one of the few times the company has followed through on this type of promise. In 20 years the 100 seater never showed up and the worlds largest widebody order never happened.