Precisely ... and good call, Wink. The fuel stuff w/SWA was posted on another thread, but putting it here will help those who didn't read the "other" thread understand what is going on ....
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HIRING, FURLOUGHS, BANKRUPTCIES: It was the best of times...it was the worst of times
- Thread starter 46Driver
- Start date
Southwest's approach (at least originally) is to make flying more convenient than driving. That means high frequency for each city pair and results in them having load factors in the low 70s. This works and they will make money while their fuel hedging lasts, but once it's over...watch out. I think you will see their profits disappear quickly unless they too make some changes. The good news for Southwest is that they are hedge for at least the next 3 or 4 years. Must be nice having management that plans for the future!
Lots of airlines hedged fuel. One of the all time hedge masters was AA. Now their contracts are for $40/ barrel becaue they didn't have the cash to lock in lower prices earlier. Every major airline buys future contracts and would have 18 months ago before fuel almost doubled. Most didn't though because paying their aircraft leases and salaries like mine was a more important use of precious cash. SWA certainly has some good mangement, their record reflects that. But they aren't geniuses that just thought it wise to hedge fuel two years ago. Trust me, they were as surprised as everyone else when fuel went through the roof. They are benefiting from the same practise most all airlines used years before SWA ever did. Sorry, but I'm not one of those guys that worships at the SWA alter. They are a darn good operation, but that isn't the only way to do business. If SWA has all the answers, then why aren't we all driving Chevy Geos? The public would not stand for nothing but SWA style service throughout the country. There is a market for what the legacy carriers offer. True enough, the market has changed, some of it temporay (competitors operating in bankruptcy) and many airlines have been slow to adapt or chosen failed formulas. But airline passengers will always be able to fly SWA style or something else.
????? Latest message is still $25k for 5 years... they just don't give you the $$ up front anymore, because of the DH screening uncertainty...PropStop said:
http://www.npc.navy.mil/Officer/Aviation/OCM/ACCP/
Y'all are still Daddy Warbucks compared to lowly Marine helo trash--$7K a year, or whatever is in the sofa cushions at HQMC!
Geese said:
The title of the thread: Hiring, Furloughs, Bankruptcies: If you got hired --- it would be "the best of times", would it not??
And my useage of that "phrase" here?? It's a very famous oxymoron, a play on words for purposes of this thread ...
have you never read any Dickens ??? ...
Geese said:
You can file this under "tough love":
Then why do it? I am going to assume you're not a fool. Having said that, I think you'd be a fool to work under those financial conditions. Surely you are a better man than $1100 a month? One thing I learned a long time ago, when Braniff crashed and burned --- if I never flew another airplane again in my life, it was going to be O.K. I had other things I could do, I was not going to collapse.
I don't understand guys who will work for next to nothing --- just to try to "stay in the game" or say you are a pilot. And don't tell me that I don't understand --- I just told you -- I lost an airline job with a major in 1982 when the market was terrible --- I went back to school and stayed in the Reserves. Life goes on and my fate was to get lucky a second time.
$17 for 65 hours a month??? That comes to food stamp wages on an annual basis. As long YOU and guys like you are willing to work for those wages --- the airline managements will continue to pay them and YOU guys will never get out of the rut you are in ---- and that is all you will get from management. They won't respect you and will think of you as a chump. No one will feel sorry for you -- it's your choice -- and a lousy one at that. You're doing it to yourself . I wish you had a better flying job --- but the fact that you and others are willing to work for subsistance wages means that management will continue to take advantage of you.
Again, you're doing it to yourself --- no sympathy coming from here .... what I just told you is the hard reality of commercial flying.
Geese said:
Good headwork, Geese/Goose .... I didn't think you were a "fool", as I said.
Sorry for the "tough love" .... best of luck in your aviating career.
Good solid advice no matter what your poison (career). It's all about choices and we have consequences (some good, some bad) for those choices. In a free market, capitalisic society, the airlines' fiscal responsibility is to make money for their shareholders. I know that if I was a shareholder of XYZ Airline (which I'm not and won't ever be), I'd want to know why those pilots are getting paid TOO MUCH! To some, it may be too little, most likely the pilots.A4sForever said:
Steve Wilkins said:
Huh??? Too Much ??? Why is it always "too much" from those who are not "getting it" ???? Ahhhhh ..... a question for the ages .......
Or better yet, why don't you ask some of the great unwashed (which includes .... you???) that I've safely landed at night on the Big Iron in near typhoon conditions with an engine out, wet runway, braking action poor, etc., etc. ... all the usual suspects ---- ????
Ask them how much their pilot is worth ...... BTW, they told me.
) )