goeing boeing,
You pose an interesting question regarding whether it would be worth it to stay if there is no pension. Thousands of airline employees in the U.S. and beyond are going to be asking themselves that over the next several years. That's because, given the continued upward pressure on oil prices, EVERY airline is going to pushed to the brink regarding getting costs seriously reduced beyond even current efforts. This is only just the very tip of the iceberg. The dirty little secret of peak oil production is little by little, inch by inch, seaping out into the public consciousness. Even our politicians and Big Oil are starting to give it credence. And the ramifications to the airline industry are astronomical.
As unfortunate as it will be for all of us, when United finally writes off the current pension plans and replaces them with 401k-esque plans, every other major U.S. airline will be forced to follow suit at some point because of the unpredictable wild card that is the price of oil. Some are in better shape than others in terms of time. But at some point, EVERY airline is going to be faced with it, even Southwest. They can't hedge forever, simply because at some point they'll be foreced to lock in prices that are at where the price of Jet A is now, which isn't sustainable over the long term for anyone.
I hate to say it folks. And some may call me an alarmist. But the fact of the matter is, we have not seen the worst of this yet. Not by a long shot. Any notion of exiting bankruptcy in the Fall of 2005 is an utter pipe dream.
