A letter to X Airlines, and ALL Regionals for that matter.

[A Life Aloft]

An explanation and a breakdown of this particular airfare above:

$428.00 (USD) is the BASE airfare, which American Airlines is charging for the round trip ticket departing from New York City JFK, to London Heathrow United Kingdom

$32.20 (US) is the United States Tax

$5.50 (YC) is the Customs User Fee, a charge to go through Customs Inspection

$7.00 (XY) is a US Federal Inspection fee.

$5.00 (XA) is called the Asphis User fee. This is a fee that goes towards US Customs Agents, when they are searching your baggage.

$2.50 (AY) is the United States Security fee

$56.20 (GB) is the Great Britain Air Passenger Duty tax

$29.80 (UB) is for the Departure Tax from Great Britain

$222.00 (YQ) is the Fuel surcharge fee, which does fluctuate

$4.50 (XF) JFK aircraft landing fee.

$1.00 (ROE ) is the Rate of Exchange.

XT stands for the total taxes and various fees, here it is $364.70

Which brings the total cost of this particular airline ticket to $792.70

An explanation and breakdown of this particular airfare above:

$262.73 (USD) is the BASE airfare which American Airlines departing from New York City La Guardia Airport to Dallas Fort Worth Airport Texas.

$19.77 (US) is the United States Tax

$7.20 (ZP) is the Segment tax, for landing and taking off on each aircraft

$5.00 (AY) is for the Airport Security Checks

$9.00 (XF) is for the Local Airport taxes.

XT stands for the total taxes and various fees, here it is $40.97

Which brings the total cost of this particular airline ticket to $304.70

 

[AA34]

IF she replies... You gotta share!

 

[A Life Aloft]

 

[SeanD]

Ok spill it. Which airline? My guess is Mesa or Great Lakes.

 

[hook_dupin]

The airlines are universally recognized as horrible business. On the whole, they have margins lower than grocery stores, but with a significantly higher asset base.

 

[ScorpionStinger]

I still like the idea of putting a tip jar up front or maybe just charge an extra $1 per passenger that goes directly to the cabin crew. I'd personally pay an extra $20 per ticket if I thought a dollar or two of that was going directly to the crew.

If the General Public knew, I'm sure they would feel and do the same!

How best do we market this information to the general public? I want to do my part. I don't think they realize how low regional pilots wages have become in-relation to cost of living/livable wage.

Bartenders, Waiters/Waitresses, IN&Out Burger employees make more.

BTW..... Ben forgot to add LOAN REPAYMENT costs pilots have amassed (purely from flight training, excluding college tuition) seeking qualifications.

 

[Seggy]

I have to say, even though I can appreciate where the original poster is coming from in his letter, nothing is going to be accomplished unless we can change the bankruptcy laws of this nation as the game is rigged against labor. Look how much American had when they declared bankruptcy, 4 Billion Dollars?!?!?! The threat of a 1113C is VERY real and there is little labor can do to stop it, unless they take concessions or we vote for more labor friendly politicians. But as Pilots keep voting by and large for Republicans, that threat won't change.

Take a look at the articles @A Life Aloft is posting. They are dead on. Sorry folks, but in a deregulated industry where profit margins are razor thin the threat of bankruptcy will always be over our heads, hence why the airlines have started to merge to create stronger, more powerful business models. However, with the regionals still fragmented management is looking at them to cut costs to save.

For a long time, up until the early 2000s, regionals have been places you spend a few years at and move on. Thanks to 9/11, Age 65, and folks getting settled into a life style where they were content making $75,000 as a 'senior' Captain of a RJ stagnation has occurred at the regional level. Unless we start looking at these regional airlines (regionals is a bad name let us call them subcontracted lift airlines) AGAIN as stepping stones and we can change the bankruptcy laws of this nation, nothing will change.

 

[Seggy]

If the General Public knew, I'm sure they would feel and do the same!

How best do we market this information to the general public? I want to do my part. I don't think they realize how low regional pilots wages have become in-relation to cost of living/livable wage.

The general public knows, they just don't care as we do a great job of delivering a safe product.

 

[SeanD]

If the General Public knew, I'm sure they would feel and do the same!

How best do we market this information to the general public? I want to do my part. I don't think they realize how low regional pilots wages have become in-relation to cost of living/livable wage.

Bartenders, Waiters/Waitresses, IN&Out Burger employees make more.

BTW..... Ben forgot to add LOAN REPAYMENT costs pilots have amassed (purely from flight training, excluding college tuition) seeking qualifications.

Id like to imagine a lot of the public knows, then again, we are talking about discount airline ticket shoppers with the main focus on securing that $200 RT ticket. Most are self absorbed and probably wouldnt care to understand the big picture. The best way to market the info is to keep creating the content about what goes on behind the scenes and put it out there. As a freelance writer, with connections to big editors and access to a major press release distribution site. Id be very happy to write an article.

 

[ScorpionStinger]

I have to say, even though I can appreciate where the original poster is coming from in his letter, nothing is going to be accomplished unless we can change the bankruptcy laws of this nation as the game is rigged against labor. Look how much American had when they declared bankruptcy, 4 Billion Dollars?!?!?! The threat of a 1113C is VERY real and there is little labor can do to stop it, unless they take concessions or we vote for more labor friendly politicians. But as Pilots keep voting by and large for Republicans, that threat won't change.

Take a look at the articles @A Life Aloft is posting. They are dead on. Sorry folks, but in a deregulated industry where profit margins are razor thin the threat of bankruptcy will always be over our heads, hence why the airlines have started to merge to create stronger, more powerful business models. However, with the regionals still fragmented management is looking at them to cut costs to save.

For a long time, up until the early 2000s, regionals have been places you spend a few years at and move on. Thanks to 9/11, Age 65, and folks getting settled into a life style where they were content making $75,000 as a 'senior' Captain of a RJ stagnation has occurred at the regional level. Unless we start looking at these regional AGAIN as stepping stones and we can change the bankruptcy laws of this nation, nothing will change.

1). Profit margins are higher, add ancillary fee's to that as well. After costs, profits are nearing $2 billion a year individually for the big 3. That's pure shareholder value.

2). Let's not forget lower fuel prices! Which will increase profit margins in the years to come. Let's not forget Bakken oil fields extractions hasn't even reached half it's potential. Fuel supply has and will continue to reduce fuel costs. We can expect lower U.S fuel costs to the point this country will begin exporting immediately after energy independence (by 2015).

3). Lower operating costs due to better aerodynamics, fuel efficient, lower maintenance cost, and incredibly lower interest rate for purchasing aircraft for regional (since Big 3 can get better interest rate that Air Wisconsin) = Lower operating cost, increase profit margin.

4). Lower labor costs: Let's not forget how much will these majors (big 3) will be saving when the old time-er pilots retire, and lower paid new captains move up to replace them, and lower paid FO's and new hires move in to replace them, etc.


Let's not cry booo-hoo poor Management can't make money, their profit margins are low. Boo-hoo. I agree with you back in 2001-2010. But now the game has drastically change! Now they're turning record profits! Trust now is not the time to feel sorry for them.

 

[Seggy]

No offense @ScorpionStinger, but I will take the Wall Street Journal's breakdown. Other entities, including ALPA have broken it down similarly.

1975 Pan Am 747 Captain wages adjusted for inflation are not realistic today. That part sucks, it is what it is, however, I still love my job though and would recommend this career to anyone.

 

[Winglet]

If the General Public knew, I'm sure they would feel and do the same!

How best do we market this information to the general public? I want to do my part. I don't think they realize how low regional pilots wages have become in-relation to cost of living/livable wage.

Bartenders, Waiters/Waitresses, IN&Out Burger employees make more.

BTW..... Ben forgot to add LOAN REPAYMENT costs pilots have amassed (purely from flight training, excluding college tuition) seeking qualifications.

That's because I used myself as an example and I was lucky enough not to have a student loan to repay.

 

[MikeD]

Let's not cry booo-hoo poor Management can't make money, their profit margins are low. Boo-hoo. I agree with you back in 2001-2010. But now the game has drastically change! Now they're turning record profits! Trust now is not the time to feel sorry for them.

The thing is, are we comparing apples to apples? In the sense of I don't think we can compare mainlines to regionals, when regionals are essentially contractors/bidders to a mainline, with fixed costs/profits that don't really vary. All their eggs are pretty much in one basket, maybe two. But I don't see where regionals really have much in the way of flexibility in terms of making "their own" money. Or am I out to lunch here?

 

[Seggy]

The thing is, are we comparing apples to apples? In the sense of I don't think we can compare mainlines to regionals, when regionals are essentially contractors/bidders to a mainline, with fixed costs/profits that don't really vary. All their eggs are pretty much in one basket, maybe two. But I don't see where regionals really have much in the way of flexibility in terms of making "their own" money. Or am I out to lunch here?

You are not out to lunch, you are hitting the nail on the head. The regional (well fee for departure or subcontracted airline flying) is horrific business model. People got to comfortable and are now paying or will pay the price for it.

 

[CirrusMonkey]

IIRC weren't airlines supposedly making a lot of money from baggage fees?

Tons, but the regional affiliate doesn't get any of it.

 

[Screaming_Emu]

Five to ten bucks more per flight hour would make a world of difference.
Per hour, that equates to ten to twenty cents per seat per hour on a fifty seat jet. A dollar per passenger for a two hour flight would cover it.

Do you really think that can't be managed?

That's my argument too. Adding a 9/11 fee of ~$5/ticket and there is very little complaint. You could raise fares by $1 per pilot per hour and radically change our lives.

I think a good ballpark figure for costs should be captain gets about $2 per seat per hour. F/O gets $1 per seat per hour. When looking at what it costs to buy a ticket, I don't think that would be that unreasonable.

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

DL's overall margins for this year have been 6 seats of profit on that hypothetical airplane.

 

[Firebird2XC]

It should be more than five to ten bucks in my opinion. I'd just love to see a cost breakdown to see where and how the all the $$$ are divided up in their fixed-cose structure, and thus where flexibility exists.. Be interesting.

I agree it would be interesting. My point is that even the most modest or not modest of increases, divided by seat, is incredibly low cost. Even if the airplane flies half full every where it goes, there's only a dollar or two to pass on in terms or cost. But somewhere, somebody had bloated infrastructure and couldn't hack it. So they leverage pay cuts, and everybody else just HAS to follow suit to be competitive.

When I consider that the outgoing CEO of my company made $17 for two years work- on top of his salary- I wonder how much that would be per pilot at AA/AE split up.

 

[Gonzo]

I think a good ballpark figure for costs should be captain gets about $2 per seat per hour. F/O gets $1 per seat per hour. When looking at what it costs to buy a ticket, I don't think that would be that unreasonable.

My guess is CA and FO costs are already a good bit above those numbers at your airline.

 

[Firebird2XC]

That's my argument too. Adding a 9/11 fee of ~$5/ticket and there is very little complaint. You could raise fares by $1 per pilot per hour and radically change our lives.

I think a good ballpark figure for costs should be captain gets about $2 per seat per hour. F/O gets $1 per seat per hour. When looking at what it costs to buy a ticket, I don't think that would be that unreasonable.

Don't forget the cabin crew. They have it worst of all. I'm all for throwing them a few bucks.