Originally Posted by
Flyby1206
Have you seen the
Republic payscale? Keep in mind the majority of their E170/175/190 CAs are 5-8yrs seniority. Now look at the
Eagle payscale.
Our 5yr ATR CAs make more than 5yr E170 CAs. Our 8yr E145 CAs get more than an 8yr E170 CA. I wonder how that competition will go when it is time to bid for flying against them...Oh and take a gander at those sweet Republic FO payrates.
Bidding for contract flying from UAL/CAL/DAL sounds nice, but when you look at the huge market share that Republic/Shuttle America/CHQ, Pinnacle/Mesaba/Colgan, Skywest/ASA/Xjet already control then we will be fighting a serious headwind trying to break into that game.
That issue was brought up specifically. The way it was put: Eagle's current profit margin is about 1%. Republic's profit margin is roughly 7%.
The reason for that is Eagle has pilots with over 10, 15, and even 20 years seniority who for years have not been going anywhere. Meanwhile Republic has a lower seniority pilot group who average around the 4 year mark.
However, Eagle has the flowthrough agreement with AA. In addition to the Eagle pilots with a spot at AA ( I forget how many) there are an additional 800 slots at AA that have to be offered to Eagle pilots first. That is 800 plus all the ones currently flowing through. The number of pilots at the top half of Eagle's seniority list leaving in the next few years is huge.
So that puts Eagle in a very unique position in regards to salaries. We are the only airline currently who is seeing a massive loss of their most senior pilots. Meanwhile other airlines like Republic do not have anybody going anywhere at that rate.
Republic has an aging (seniority wise) pilot group. In a few years all their pilots who are currently on 3, 4 and 5th year pay scales will be making much more money. Meanwhile at Eagle, our average hire date will continue to get lower and lower.
So even though we will pay our pilots more, we will have an advantage of paying out fewer higher salaries...basically a reverse of what is currently happening in regards to Eagle vs Republic.
I'm just repeating what was said by VARIOUS people at the top, including the President and a number of very senior Captains. Their enthusiasm at spinning off and contracting with other airlines was palpable... and Republic was mentioned by name more than once.
We will just have to wait and see what happens.