Completely made up. After 9/11 oil was $20/bbl but the airlines lost BILLIONS. Not to mention UAL is parking 747's, which going by his/her math makes them profitable. Why would UAL park profitable aircraft?

Because they're not profitable.

It's been said that 50 seaters are "loss leaders" and used by the majors to cherry pick competitors routes. Before the RJ DAL pretty much had a stranglehold on the Southeast, UAL on the West coast, NWA in the midwest, etc. RJ's opened up a lot more markets for the majors, at $0.25/gal Jet-A. However, now they've morphed into less feed and and now carry a sizable percentage of the mainline pax, reference XJT.

What will bring about profits is a cutting of the capacity. Downsizing the number of seats on a given market makes each seat more valuable. Thus you can charge exponentially more for them.

Unless LCC's come in with 737's and take up the slack. Did someone say Southwest/Airtran?!?

Cut enough capacity and SOMEBODY will try to fill the void...... I would like to see one shinning long term example of an airline that SHRANK its way to profitability.

And as far as the 50/70/130 comment above... stop smoking crack.

those are the paraphrased words of an airline consultant working for a major airline.

Getting RALPA to take a stand is like trying to build a sandcastle with dry sand. Impossible.

go ahead and be positive and tell yourselves you will all keep your jobs. the fact is, EVERYONE is screwed whether they are at the major or regional level (if you are toward the bottom of the seniority list).

Had a mainline United CA in the jumpseat today...I told him he'd better do everything in his power to preserve my future job at the legacy level...that I wasn't about to be stuck at SkyWest for the rest of my career!

Of course you did. I'm sure you turned around, looked him in the eye, and lectured him about what he should do. Because, as we all know, the biggest thing the mainline pilot is concerned with is the future job of a regional pilot.

Let alone one at a non union carrier.

Nobody cares that SKW is not union, except for a few regional pilots who think alpa's failings are SKW's fault :rolleyes:

Here is the real surprise
 

I was at a meeting where the guy that used to run the marketing dept at P&G that came to Untidy a few years back, fielded some questions regarding customer feedback on passengers. He basically said that customer comments pointed out they actually preferred the express carriers on routes shorter than 1.5 hours because they felt that the express carriers treated them so much better.
I decided to become more vigilant and sure enough my commute changed to where I was riding a .8 hour flight into ORD for about a years time. The mainline flights made an announcement almost every time that it would be to turbulent to provide inflight service, of course most of those flights were smooth in terms of turbulance. The F/A's also exhibited attitudes that I noticed several passengers commenting about. The express flights always provided inflight service and truely made me feel welcome. ( also noticed by other passengers and commented upon )
Here is one that I know this crowd will hate, I rode on a Go-jets flight departing at 6:00 AM and try as I may because I am a coffee hound, I could not empty my cup. Several other passengers noticed how attentive this individual was and wanted to know the F/A's name so they could send a note to United.
The reality is that we at Untidy have created a product that everybody notices is below standard, even our service providers have not fallen to our level. If we do not fix this problem immediately we are gone. Our lack of basic ethics in the work environment has become apparent to the marketplace. The blame game started years ago, and the end of the game is approaching. If we all do not start looking in the mirror with a change in our hearts, the product just will not survive. In the end we will find ourselves " banging our hearts against some mad buggers wall ".

It's easy to become fat, dumb, and lazy when you're the contracting party, such as United. The regionals, by being both a younger and less jaded crowd, as well as being at the mercy of their contracting parent, have absolutely been serving up a better product than mainline...I, for one, would Love to see that change for the better, starting from the top.

Dead-on ockham.