Originally Posted by chihuahua

Breeze also appears as though they will have bases in smaller sun-belt cities that many pilots may want to reside in, and will hire based on people actually working out of these cities. If you look, although the pilot job posting has been taken down, but the FA job postings are by city, so they will most likely do the same for pilots once they start hiring again. They also reduce their costs by flying turns out of these cities, so the pilots can return home and sleep in their own bed every night, and the company doesn't have to buy hotel rooms. Some pilots may enjoy flying, but have other interests outside of aviation as well, and want to land at home in Florida on the last day of their trip, not stare at a stand-by board at 9pm hoping to get on a severely delayed flight, which if they miss means they'll be spending the night in the airport, or buying a hotel room. Some pilots don't want anything to do with reserve or crash pads in *insert your favorite crime/riot ridden major city/airline hub here*. The pay at Jetblue was probably sub-standard for an A320 when they started, but there are plenty of regional lifers flying right now, who will retire from the regionals, who wish they had not passed up an opportunity at Jetblue back in the early 2000s thinking mainline would take them soon. The big three legacy airlines also use low pilot pay to cut costs, if they didn't regional airlines wouldn't exist. Hell, Delta is so desperate to keep 35 RJs in their fleet, that they did a shameless about-face and decided to give Endeavor a flow and proudly stated that it's only so that they could keep the 35 RJs they would have to get rid of if they didn't. Breeze is just a start-up, the wage depression comes from the large, too big to fail airlines, not from start-ups flying a few routes marketed towards leisure travel.

Originally Posted by e6bpilot

Look, I enjoy your optimism, it's refreshing.
It isn't, however, grounded in reality or history.
The market is the market. Right now the market wage for an experienced airline pilot trends a lot higher than what Breeze is willing to pay. Just like every other startup, including JetBlue, Breeze will capitalize on their startup status to pay less than market wages and ride the wave of low cost structure until they are no longer a startup and are forced to respond to market forces. It's almost like Neeleman has done this very same thing multiple times. Starting an airline is fun. Running an airline sucks. I am sure he is a very nice guy and I have heard great things about him as a person. He has a track record, though, and it's clear what he is doing here.
Startups can cheap out on labor. It's what they do. Look at JetBlue, Spirit, Allegiant, etc for how that all works. Eventually they have to pay their people what they are worth. It isn't the legacy airlines' fault, it's just the market.
This whole idea of the home based airline is also fun to talk about. It works to an extent, but then there is that pesky seniority thing and eventually you run out of pilots living in Tampa who are willing to work for slave ship wages and now you are drafting pilots from other domiciles to staff it. Rinse and repeat. See Allegiant if you need history on that one works.
I wish Breeze all the best. They are serving my city with some super convenient nonstops, so I hope they succeed and prosper. I just don't think they are different at all. It's just more of the same. You'll see.

Originally Posted by e6bpilot

Look, I enjoy your optimism, it's refreshing.
It isn't, however, grounded in reality or history.
The market is the market. Right now the market wage for an experienced airline pilot trends a lot higher than what Breeze is willing to pay. Just like every other startup, including JetBlue, Breeze will capitalize on their startup status to pay less than market wages and ride the wave of low cost structure until they are no longer a startup and are forced to respond to market forces. It's almost like Neeleman has done this very same thing multiple times. Starting an airline is fun. Running an airline sucks. I am sure he is a very nice guy and I have heard great things about him as a person. He has a track record, though, and it's clear what he is doing here.
Startups can cheap out on labor. It's what they do. Look at JetBlue, Spirit, Allegiant, etc for how that all works. Eventually they have to pay their people what they are worth. It isn't the legacy airlines' fault, it's just the market.
This whole idea of the home based airline is also fun to talk about. It works to an extent, but then there is that pesky seniority thing and eventually you run out of pilots living in Tampa who are willing to work for slave ship wages and now you are drafting pilots from other domiciles to staff it. Rinse and repeat. See Allegiant if you need history on that one works.
I wish Breeze all the best. They are serving my city with some super convenient nonstops, so I hope they succeed and prosper. I just don't think they are different at all. It's just more of the same. You'll see.

Originally Posted by David Puddy

How about we just see how Breeze does over the next few quarters.... Summer travel should help. A lot of people dismissed JetBlue in its early days too. Seems like a lot of HATERS want to predict how things will go.

Originally Posted by sailingfun

Breeze is just another startup who’s business plan is to try and get labor at incredibly cheap rates. Nothing more and nothing less. Neelemanman has done it over and over. This time however the labor market will not permit terrible work rules and low wages long. He will have to bail early. I bet he is out in 3 years. Witness his attempt to get virtually free flight attendants already failing.

Originally Posted by LAXtoDEN

The seats actually looked comfortable in the video’s. I like the tan leather seat look.

Originally Posted by TrojanCMH

I thought the same then the article stated they are changing them to the slim seats to fit more passengers on.