Just what the Bloomberg article says....

Discount Competitors
Airlines say rising competition from low-cost carriers has crimped pricing power in a few markets, including Dallas, Seattle and Chicago, and contributed to some of the decline in the revenue gauge, also known as unit revenue.

You do realize that if you have good rules PBS is a lot better than hard lines? You could negotiate 4 days off min into PBS. You could even make it wavable by the individual pilot's choice! Gives you a lot flexibility to control your own life!

Welcome to Capitalism.

Our Labor costs may be lower than industry average (for now), however that is not the reason for our success.

Also, our service isn't ****ty by any stretch of the imagination. our F/As are great and the majority of our planes are less than a few years old.

Anyway, carry on......

I do agree with you that work rules are what makes PBS crappy, not PBS itself.

So competition is bad?

Yeah, from the big carriers who overcharge. Id love to get paid more, and I think we really will. But, you cant deny the effectiveness of this business model. Its got the legacies a little worried, domestically, not internationally.

Had PBS at my last place, no thanks, I'm liking line bidding.

The legacies may be in for the fight of their lives. They are making tons of money now, but need to watch the advance of domestic ULCC and ME3 on either end of their revenue catchment. I contribute to and work in support of ALPA PAC, but sadly hoping for renegotiation of the Open Skies deal with the UAE to protect legacy long haul flying is unlikely to succeed. Look at how well we stopped the Abu Dhabi US Customs facility.

Correct. But if you have proper work rules and credit assigned to them it doesn't matter. However, if you want lines for the 3 maybe 4 months you have conflicts to get more days off so be it! I personally think more ppeople would benefit from control and more days off on the days the pilot wants off for the full*calendar year.*

So who has this PBS with 4 days off?

Sounds like some of the comments I used to hear from some guys that have never worked under PBS. "Why can't we get PBS that:
1) Guarantees four days off between work blocks,
2) Has transitions conflicts,
3) Has vacation trip touching.
?"

This would create an opening to discuss the reasons why management wants PBS over our line bidding. Eyes were opened wide by the end of the conversation.