Can regional airlines really afford to pay more?
 

First off I am not an airline pilot so I am just puting it out that I might not know anything that I am talking about( so please no sarcarstic or derogatory replies). Obviously I have noticed that many regional airline pilots complain about their first year's( and beyond) wages. While I too think that getting paid less than $20,000 a year is deplorable, I have to ask the question, "Do regional airlines just not have the money to pay their pilots any more than they are getting paid?" Yes, I realize that airline management members get paid loads of money and being the liberal that I am, I think that is horsesh*t. However, even if management's salaries were cut in half and divided up among all the pilots, would it really benefit the pilots that much??? It seems like everyother month you hear about an airline going bankrupt or merging with someone else. Can they afford to pay the pilots more? From my knowledge, before deregulation( and low-cost carriers), airline tickets cost much more than they do today. Could that not be the main reason that pilots are not being paid as well, just because ticket prices are lower?

Hmmmm.....

In a word...YES! You very rarely hear about pilots at major airlines complaining about their starting pay because it is usually well above poverty level. Regional airline starting pay isn't...not even close...especially given the training and skill involved. One of the reasons for this is that regional airlines thrive on contract flying for the majors...that is their bread and butter. In order to win business, they have to be cheaper than the competition. In order to be cheap, they can't pay their employees Jack! This of course makes them very profitable and so management gets millions and I/we get 20K a year to start and so on.

The major airlines are faced with more price sensitive customers than ever before. With the proliferation of low cost carriers offering rock bottom fares, the majors are forced to cut their own costs to be competitive with these guys and offer lower fares that keep planes filled. This re-tooling is making some restructured airlines moderately profitable and so again management gets millions and I/we get pensions taken away, benefeits and wages reduced and longer work days.

Oh and the government doesn't see anything wrong with this. But they do however see a need to block legal job actions even though the Railway labor act says they are allowed.

I don't particularly give a flying fark whether they can afford it or not. At this point the very best thing regional pilots could to to retrieve their career from the flames is to get so prohibitively expensive that it no longer makes sense to outsource to the regionals. Killing the regionals should be ALPA's #1 goal. Of course then you'd have clueless RJDC d0uchebags complaining that they're not adequately representing regional pilots...

2Q 2007 Operating Profit/Loss $(Millions)

Atlantic Southeast: 40
American Eagle: 53
Pinnacle: 14
Sky West: 48
Comair: 20
Mesa: 9
Express Jet: -40

Seven-Carrier Total: 143

From these numbers, it would appear that Express Jet is the only one not in position give pilots a raise. Even if you gave pilots at these airlines a $5/flying hour raise, you wouldn't really put a dent in those profits, not even in Mesa's profit. Even a $10/flying hour rasie would not be unreasonable.

http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/20...bts043_07.html

yes!!!!!!!!!!

Major carriers outsource to regional carriers for one reason...it's cheaper for them to use us then their own operations. After you filter out the fact that now you have a second company paying a second CEO trying to earn a second profit off of flying that's being done second hand, you start to see the problem. We would all be better off if there was no such thing as a regional...but why just get your pilot group to fight itself when it's so much easier to get it to fight someone else?

The key, as anything in an capitalist market, will come down to offer and demand. The pilot shortage will bring higher pay. How much higher can the regionals afford to pay the pilots, I guess it depends how much money they can get for a ticket, and how much passengers are willing to pay for air travel. Offer and demand.

Of course they can....For example, if the regional can afford 15 Q400s and 16 CRJ 900s, and purchase another small regional, they can easily afford to pay their pilots better. In this business, and in most companies, pilots are just a utility like an electric bill - and managers simply want to reduce or minimize thier costs while maximizing productivity. I'd personally like to see the end of year bonuses of some of these managers who reap the benefits of the guys/gals at 'the tip of the spear' makin it happen...

You make an excellent point here. It is not, and never has been a question of whether or not a regional airline could "afford" to pay pilots more. The regional airlines all develop big-airline-like infrastructures and top-heavy management bureaucracies in the image of larger companies, which cost millions, but do not contribute a nickel to the company's profits.

Ultra-low pilot pay is factored into the operating model of the regional airline companies. They pay low because they can, and the problem with the whole commercial aviation game is that there is always ready supply of fools eager to jump in and work for a small fraction of what the job is worth. So in that way, supply and demand works to drive pilot pay lower, as long as the companies have no problem lining up the chumps to do the flying. They would operate without pilots if they could, and the day will probably arrive when they are able to do so. In the meantime, pilots primarily have themselves to blame for the economic degradation that they have experienced over the years.