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On 11/7/2002 6:13:12 PM KCFlyer wrote:
[/P]Shouldn't I add Southwest into that lowfare mix??????
You're confusing low fare with low pay. big diff. In SWA's defense, there is some historical reason to believe that their stock option will have some value, and the entire compensation package has been competative over the course of the last 20 years. My only prob with SWA's pay scales are that they rely too much on the value of stock options, and assume you can dilute shareholder value forever while continuing to grow at above 10% per year indefinately. I fear that by the time they realize that just doesn't happen, the contract wages will be pressured down permanately everywhere.
That might tend to skew the argument back over to my side... And Valujet, Air Florida, and Midwest Express (are they really low fare or are they just bad pilots over there??) all had one fatal accident. So I'd take you up on that...Let's lump Valuejet, Air Florida, Airtran/Valujet, Southwest, JetBlue, WestPac,Air South, National, ATA, People Express, New York Air, Vanguard, Muse Air, Jet America, and whatever low fares might have existed and compare the accidents for their combined total RPM's. Even with the notorious Everglades accident wasn't due to pilot error, and you seem to imply in almost all your posts that lower paid pilots are somehow less capable than their higher paid brethern.
Did you do the math? Pay doesn't determine competance, but competance can determine pay. As for accidents that weren't the result of Pilot error, I'd say look at UAL 232 if you want an example of the value of the absolute best crews you can find. Look at Sen Wellstone. despite being a union man he went cheap on his travel. That accident was the result of one of three conditions. First, it could have been pilot error, second, it could have been a recoverable A/C malfunction or weather condition or third, it could have been somethinbg that Chuck Yeager couldn't handle. In two of the three cases, a good crew could have saved him. Is that a risk worth taking?
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