companies that are properly staffed don't give out the equivalent of 6 months paid leaves of absence which is EXACTLY what AA is doing with their 6 month self-chosen vacation for FAs.
the simple reason they are still hiring is that they want lower wage rates long-term by hiring new blood, aren't convinced that they can't operate the airline in 6 months with the same number of FAs that they have now, and think it is cheaper to pay 6 months worth of free bennies rather than shell out the $100K that UA is paying for early retirees - and if they only have to do it one time, they are probably right.
and dawg, AA is overstaffed because they have yet to realize they cannot fly the same amount of capacity on a year round basis and haven't figured out how to staff accordingly. Every other airline changes their capacity with the market far more than AA has done. I have shown that before. US pulled down its TATL scheduled far more than any other US carrier. AA just hasn't figured out how to do it and staff accordingly.
and they will carry the weight of the unneeded staffing on their budget until they figure it out.
the reason for the size of DL employees' profit sharing is because DL, like WN, is no longer willing to be profitable for a few months a year and they lose boatloads of money the rest of the year - which is what the legacy carriers have done for quite some time.
as for DL's use of ready reserve staffing, DOT data shows that DL has the highest average salary for its airport employee group (DOT data does not break down above and below wing or cargo) AND also has the highest total compensation for the group. DL's formula delivers more money to more people than any other airline's strategy.
the notion that the RR program destroys jobs and reduces salaries is simply not supported by real data.
