Quote: "Consumers should be concerned. Fares could rise as regional airlines are forced to raise pilots' pay. Aviation experts predict that some regional airlines may fail, which could lead to reduced service at smaller airports." Fortunes sour for regional airlines as majors prosper
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I think it's reasonable to say that with a $10/hour salary increase (across the board), airlines can stymie the pilot shortage and they would go a long way toward making regional airline pilot pay commensurate with the education, experience, and levels of professionalism and responsibility required for the position.

So let's do some math and see just how stingy, (and stupid) management actually is.

In a 50 seat airplane, (given an 80% load factor, or 40 passengers), an increase of $10/hour for each pilot equates to 50 CENTS per passenger, on a 1 hour flight. For a 2 hour leg,.....it's $1 per passenger.

On a 76 seat airplane, the numbers are even more inconsequential. Again, given an 80% load factor, (61 passengers), a $10/hour increase equates to less than 33 CENTS per passenger,.....or 65 CENTS on a two hour flight.

So if you believe the context of the above USA Today article, you would take away the idea that airfares will necessarily increase or service will be reduced at smaller airports and some airlines will FAIL,.......all over 33 CENTS!

I know they're stingy. But can they really be that stupid?

At least they're not under the impression that only the pilots onboard are the ones who need to get paid... your 50 cents per passenger is actually more like $5.00, once you pay all the crews standing by, taxes, contributions, etc. etc.

I gave YOU the math to support my assertion. Why don't you give me YOUR math to support YOUR assertion?

Let me caveat this with... 'Pilots should be paid better, and would be in a perfect world'

However... Your math is correct... IN a situation where a company only had to man one aircraft of two pilots and that was all that mattered.

BUT... How many total pilots does a company have compared to the number that are actually flying that day? On reserve, on vacation, sick, etc... In a vacuum it might be $.33, across a company it is much more. Add on top of that, tertiary things that you aren’t really thinking about like (hey I make more, I'm going to put more in my 401k. Which the company has to match).

Companies aren’t in a vacuum. A $10/hr raise for every pilot would have a much larger impact than you are thinking. Even if it were just a $10 supplement to actual flying (i.e. was paid for each hour flown, not on reserve or brought up to meet guarantee) it would still have all of the tertiary effects you aren't counting, just at a lesser rate.

Airlines have no problem raising prices to account for higher operating costs all around. They should have no issue raising prices across the board for higher pilot costs. Oh wait, we would need to stop having pilots selling their soul to operators for poor pay.

Until pilots as one group become a unified voice, I fear we will never get that simple raise that is needed in this industry. Look at several other careers and vocational trades that people can go into right out of school with starting pay that puts our industry to shame...

If airlines universally added $10 per ticket sold that would generate plenty of revenue to pay pilots better across the board. This would help so airlines could keep all their revenue they're making and not cut into it to pay pilots better....

Ok. So if it costs an airline $20 to increase pilot pay by $10, (which I think is a stretch), let's double my math.

The range now is from $0.66 per passenger per hour to $1.00 per passenger per hour. Still not a staggering amount from a $350 fare, is it? And certainly not too much to ask for, given the alternative failure of the airline, as suggested in the article.

Also I must add. Raising ticket prices would only help the airline whose name is painted on the side of the plane. Even if airlines increased airfare to supplement better pilot pay, the regionals are locked into contracts. The only way regional pilots could get that money into their pockets is for ALL regionals to not contract flying for less than they're worth... There has to be unity in this industry or it's not going to happen.

So basically the regionals have to force the mainline carriers to pay them more. Otherwise mainline will never be inclined to raise ticket prices to pay regional crews better.

Because you're an RJ driver who doesn't understand math.

You voted for Obama, didn't you?

Pilot pay is less than 1% of operating cost, but why would the airlines raise pay when pilot groups are taking pay cuts to get new aircraft. At some point pilots are really going to have to question their choices. I don't know about you all, but my time is worth a lot more than what we are paid.