Night Hawk 6

Will there ever be a day of reckoning? Only when 70,000 professional pilots unite and speak with one voice, willing to sacrifice for the common good and the advancement of the profession. Waiting for the current system of "associations" to act is what has put our profession where it is today. Unless some in the back-pack generation step up and force their collective will on management and the government, as their parents and grand parents did, they will work for "The Man" for crumbs. They must put aside the tribal mentality that continues via the management "tools" that think their fellow aviators are their competitors. Management competes, pilots fly airplanes.

ForeverFO

While I love and agree with the spirit of what you say, we are our own worst enemies when it comes to stuff like this.

If management insinuated to the pilots of their company - "If we can out-compete 'Appalaichan Airlines' and drive them from our markets via BK or similar, then we will have a near monopoly; profits will soar, we can give you raises and us giant bonuses, and the world will be lollipops, kittens, and cotton-candy" - a large number of pilots would be on board.

How many of us have an internal smug-on going when we hear that our competition posted huge losses while we turn a profit?

It is going to be almost impossible to get past this tribe mentality. It is human nature.

R57 relay

I think you hit the nail on the head.

I remember when Eastern was about to shutdown. So many guys said "When they shutdown, we'll be in good shape!" Not so. The rest of the airlines took up the slack and now instead of having a weak competitor in many of our markets, we had many stronger ones.

tomgoodman

During a company "road show" at that time, somebody asked our Financial V.P.: "If Eastern shuts down, won't they just be replaced in ATL by a stronger competitor?" The V.P. replied: "That would actually be better for us, because a healthy competitor wants to make a profit. It's weak, desperate companies that ruin the fare structure, because they'll cut prices below cost just to keep the doors open a little longer, and everybody loses money."

Night Hawk 6

Just think the management types that create and support this this convoluted logic get paid bonuses while their companies go broke. This is exactly why pilots should never engage in management "think." Pilots are only there to fly the aircraft yet they see themselves as some sort of quasi management instead of the hourly labor they actually are. This of course goes back to our military roots where the overall concept was to prepare leaders/managers to advance up the ladder to positions where flying skills matters little if at all. How many CEOs have real aviation backgrounds? None of the current batch could tell the difference between a start switch or the toilet flush knob and more importantly see no reason to learn. They have never flown a trip or endured any of the angst that pilots endure while accomplishing their duties. Unfortunately though we have many "tools" among us that think management is worthy of our respect and admiration while that same management scoffs and belittles our profession at every turn. Yes we are our own worst enemy.

flybywire44

Mitchell Schnurman: Ironically, American Airlines