Pay for seniority is the new pay for training.

 

An interesting take. And a valid one at that.

 

Or maybe the lure of a bonus check (or promised growth, ipads, return to last wages) is enough for you to stand by while your AAG sells out your regional carrier flying to Skywest? Why didn't you take a stand? The only people that have had the guts to do it lately is Spirit. Oh, and they still (along with those you don't like) do ALL their flying.

Does it take a while to climb up on that pedestal, or does your imagination keep you up there?

 

Correction, MOST of us came from TWA, Abex, Astar, Midwest, ATA, Aloha, USA300, Independence, United, USAirways, Frontier. Regional pilots are in the minority at VX.

 

In the case of AMR, they ordered those airframes because they KNEW they were gonna file BK. IT is just another bargaining chip.. something else to sell. The problem is that AMR's slots will go to a foreign carrier.. it was a good move on their part.

 

You're exactly right. It's not about the airplanes, it's about the slots on the assembly line.

 

Hatters??? I thought hats were.... Oh wait, wrong forum.

 

They will still need a lot of new airframes in the coming years unless there is a fragmentation or liquidation. Even in a merger scenario they will need a lot of new planes.

Boeing and Airbus will play ball. Airbus is an EU jobs program so it doesn't mater if they make money and Boeing gets plenty of slush from their never ending defense gravy train in addition to being a jobs program here as well (see the bogus import/export bank nonsense) so both will play ball with AA to secure deliveries. Both will bleed their respective taxpayers by monetizing whatever deal they need to so that their delivery lines are maxed out by putting it on their tab (debt) even when they run out of buyers of their debt and have to print it directly to the streets.

And we can forget the fantasy foreign airlines where every little tinpot leader thinks they are the next Howard Hughes by ordering 50,000 A380's to dominate the globe. There is no place for that lift and they know it. Something will have to give. Not to mention the nations doing the fantasy ego ordering don't even have the pilots to fly them now, let alone the customers which won't be born in numbers to fill the seats they are buying for generations (and by born I don't mean physically on the earth...no shortage there of course...but rather actual consumer based air travelers that can produce the economic demand to fill those seats. China can't just will a billion people into the middle class especially at our expense when the bulk of their bubble economy is dependant on our bubble economy. When our debt/dollar bubble pops hard, they will be even worse off. Ditto for the ME nations, etc).

A lot will change in the coming years but I'd bet AA will still be here and the actual fleets of the shiney widebody syndrome foreign airlines are drastically smaller then their order books are today.

 

I believe the proper term is "haberdashers".

 

Those Liberian and Panamanian flags of convenience will never challenge the U.S. merchant marine, the largest, safest sea transportation system in the world!