Quote:
Originally Posted by Dottore
It's simply wrong in my view to pay people who carry this kind of responsibility for the lives of their passengers so little. But I guess that's the free market at work.
I'd be interested to know how flight crew salaries actually impact ticket prices.
But I'd much rather pay a bit more for my flight to know that my pilot is getting a decent wage, and didn't have to live with his/her parents and fly across the country in order to get to work.
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No idea how to get numbers for feeder airlines. But you can look up numbers for the majors.
United (UAUA) has 6,400 pilots, trailing 12-month revenue of $19BN, and trailing 12-month operating income (loss) of ($1.9BN).
Hypothetically, if every UAUA pilot received a $50K/yr raise, that's 1.6% of revenue - so ticket prices would have to rise by 1.6%.
Would I pay that? Of course. Domestic airline ticket prices are cheap. Coast to coast for $160 - cripes, you can spend that on cab fare during the trip. Fares could go up 50% and still be reasonable, in my opinion.
But if they couldn't get that 1.6%, then operating loss would be ($2.2BN).
Personally, I wish we could back to the pre-deregulation airline industry. Tickets were more expensive, but airline travel was a better experience. For passengers. I guess for pilots, flight attendants, etc too.