Allied Pilots Association

Why is Regional Airline Pay So Bad?

February 11, 2015 by Robert Mark

Jetwhine

Why is Regional Airline Pay So Bad?

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Why is Regional Airline Pay So Bad?

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I was thinking the other day about my early days as a working flight instructor. I remember hanging out with a bunch of other instructors at Palwaukee airport grousing about how we’d live on the 5 bucks an hour we could get paid for sitting in the right seat of a Cessna 150. Then one day we heard about this guy on the airport who was willing to instruct for free … zero, zip, nada … just because he loved flying so much. He had another job so he didn’t really care about the money. I can tell you … the rest of us instructors didn’t much like this idea of a competitor undercutting our prices.

There was a lesson about pilot wages that I took from this experience after one of the other guys told me not to worry about that instructor. “Hey,” he told me. “The guy may get a few students, but don’t you think they’ll be paying him what both his students AND that instructor believe he’s worth?”

Hmmmm. I never forgot that.

So on to today’s topic … the lousy pay at the regional airlines. Why does it continue, many people wonder?

First a bit of context. Most of the regional airlines provide service to more than one major airline. Because there are only a few regional feeders to deliver service to the few majors we have left in this country, the business has become pretty cut-throat. That means those regionals will do most anything to keep costs low and that means … you guessed … keep wages low.

So let’s compare Envoy, the old American Eagle carrier, with the mainline pilots at American Airlines just to see how different the groups are.

You may have heard recently the American mainline pilots — represented by the Allied Pilots Association — just signed a new contract, one that gives them an immediate 23% pay hike and 3% annual raises after that. Not bad, but then American Airlines pulled down some serious profits the past few years including a windfall off the drop in fuel prices. [Read more…] about Why is Regional Airline Pay So Bad?

If I Were an American Airlines Pilot

October 8, 2012 by Robert Mark

There’s no small amount of irony in the fact that American Airlines axed the contracts of their pilots just a few hours past Labor Day last month. Kind of adds insult to injury. I feel for the pilots having been around to watch the ugliness of Midway 1’s disintegration after failed Chapter 11 attempt in 1991. On the other hand, as the owner of a small business, I’ve also been an American Advantage customer for decades. It’s a tough spot actually.

After the past few weeks of maintenance write up, pilots calling in sick and generally bad airline publicity, I was thinking about the point the pilots might be trying to make to the management people at DFW.

Certainly they were fed up with being asked to absorb more cuts. They were also saying there really still is a line in the sand, despite what the management people and customers on the outside might think. I don’t think this is going to be Eastern Airlines all over again where employees shut the company down for good, but I do think management everywhere might just have called the death of organized labor a bit early. There’s life in them yet … and that’s not all bad either. [Read more…] about If I Were an American Airlines Pilot

AA Pilots: Bankruptcy is YOUR Fault

November 30, 2011 by Robert Mark

From Paris —

There’s no small amount of irony that AMR, parent of American Airlines and American Eagle, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a move certain to save the carrier millions over the next few years — only a day before 2,000,000 million British public sector workers walked off the job to protest pension cuts in the UK.

Gerald Arpey stepping down as American’s CEO is just a tad late though since the airline lost billions in six of the eight years he ran the place. The union’s hated him so it was no surprise management told everyone that the straw that pushed the carrier over the edge was the inability of AA’s 11,000+ pilots to agree on productivity cuts in the upcoming contract.

You bad pilots.

The greedy Allied Pilots Association’s Master Executive Council, in fact, reportedly refused to even present management’s last offer to the rank and file. Clearly, just as in Britain, fault clearly rests with labor. Here we are in the worst recession/depression in a century and these damned pilots still want stuff. The nerve of these pilots trying to outmaneuver management.

Now American’s filed bankruptcy because those greedy employees went out and blew their huge bonuses again with no thought for tomorrow. Oh wait a minute … that’s right … it was just management who picked up those bonuses wasn’t it. Oh whatever.

Obviously those stupid pilots don’t realize the corner they’ve put management in. Those poor fat cats are down to their last $4.1 B in cash too. That doesn’t leave much for anyone else for god’s sake.

C’mon you American pilots. Times really are tough. Can’t you just take one more for the team … just once more? Management’s got your back this time … really.

“Oh Paaaleazzzze!” But a common philosophy that labor and management are natural enemies is also ridiculous. That antagonism was born from too many layers of airline management losing touch with the pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ground personnel who actually perform the work.