Quote:
Originally posted by madmax
Ok, lets say we do away with the unions. Non union labor will work for free. How do you pay for a billion dollar fleet of planes that are filled up with 100k of jet fuel when tickets are being sold for $49.
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Those $49 tickets are not everywhere. They're for very short flights on no-name airlines to places like Myrtle Beach. When I fly Southwest I pay at least 200 to go to Cali or NY from Chicago. A lot of times it's more and when I fly United, it's usually around 400 a ticket.
http://www.airlines.org/econ/d.aspx?nid=6207
Shows how many bankruptcies there have been in the industry.
Anyway here are the costs for airlines broken down:
http://www.airlines.org/econ/d.aspx?nid=1042
The largest component is labor. Fuel is 2nd largest and moves up and down as any commodity will but that labor cost isn't market priced.
Plus how can they charge more without losing passengers?
I have to think about it in terms of my own interests. I want cheap flights and I don't want an airline defaulting on its pension obligations like United did and leaving the government to take care of their mess. I'm sure the pilots all have to think about it in terms of how high a salary they can get with what benefits and the airlines in terms of how to get the most profits for themselves.
-Rudey
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