Why Is Airline Management Evil?

DeuceOfAces

Well-Known Member
My real question is in the title.

BUT, I also I feel torn.

One half of me that loves seeing the world from the air and traveling wants to become a airline pilot or maybe a corp/fractional pilot (Someone told me it's like the difference between a bus driver and a chauffeur).

The other half is saying the piloting profession ain't what it used to be and I should run far, far away. The industry is in a "race to the bottom"...

Or I could become an air traffic controller.

A career in an airline's corporate HQ instead of in the cockpit of a shiny new jet seems to be looking better every day.

BUT, I don't feel like making a living screwing people over (unless I work at somewhere like LUV, B6, UPS, etc.)

Is airline management always the bad guy? I don't get it...

I've got to make a decision because I can either stick with my current college major (Aviation Administration) or transfer into the piloting program.

Advice anyone?
 
We need good people in this profession, whether they be line pilots OR management. We need individuals that care about attention to detail, diligence, and fair treatment of others. Whatever you choose, you're going to be doing it for a long period of time - find something you find interesting and improve upon.

EDITED TO ADD: What this industry is missing is leadership with substantive experience. I encourage you to become intimately familiar with the real day-to-day operations of the flying business before segueing into a management position.
 
BUT, I don't feel like making a living screwing people over (unless I work at somewhere like LUV, B6, UPS, etc.)

Southwest puts holes in their airplanes, JetBlue makes people suffer in a tube for seven hours on the ground, and UPS loses your packages.

:D:D:D :beer:
 
All airlines are in the business to make money.

As pilots, we're part of the machinery to make money. We are a 'cost of goods sold'.

Every publicly traded corporate in America, yes including SWA, B6, FDX and UPS, are looking out for their shareholders, first and foremost. The more the 'machinery' of cranking out sellable product (umm, us! :)) costs, the bitchier the shareholders get and start raising cane at meetings and cutting the share price. Remember, the airline business is run by accountants who if they could slap ".com" on the side of HQ, sell all the airplanes all to make $0.13 more per share of stock, they'd do it without an ounce of guilt. Profit Profit Profit and if they can cut costs 30% and still get butts in seats to make the donuts, they're going to shift that savings to the shareholders pockets.

It's not evil, it's just their job. The Airline Transport Association has their back.

Providing safe, reliable transportation, ensure a positive resellable customer experience and to be compensated as much as possible for the minimum amount of work.

It's my job. My union has my back. It isn't evil, it's just their job to maximize pay:work performed

That's any airline. Don't make the mistake of thinking "everything sucks except these few airlines" because today's "HotPlace2Be Airways" always becomes tomorrow's "DamnBroSucksToBeYou Express".

And it'll go back and forth in perpetuity.

Always has. Always will. And our generation is no different no matter how much we pray we aren't.
 
Airline management's job, as others have said, is to make money for the shareholders. That in and of itself isn't "evil." The issues I have at my current company is the way they go about minimzing costs. They'll happily grant themselves bonuses or gamble with the company money (see our debacle on auction rate securities), then turn around and tell the labor groups (not JUST pilots, but all labor groups) how cash strapped the airline is. Rather than streamlining the operation, they'll just start cutting benefits......except for themselves.

I'm a HUGE fan of "don't ask someone to do something you wouldn't do yourself," which the management at my airline does not do. As a result, there's a severe lack of trust and respect for them. They've flat out lied to us in the past in an attempt to save money by getting us to agree to a sub-par contract. Just since I've been at this airline, I've heard things like "If you don't sign this, Northwest will pull all of our flying." This was followed two weeks later by a 10 year agreement with Northwest. Now, it takes a lot longer than two weeks to work something like that out. Management knew it was coming, yet they chose to tell us something that was blatantly false. Same with the Delta flying we secured. Prior to that we were told "Sign this or no other airline will touch us." Less than a month alter, we were awarded the -900 flying. Once again, not something that happens overnight.

There ARE airline management teams out there that treat their labor groups as partners rather than a cost to be managed. I'd like to see more people with that outlook in the management side of things. It would be a refreshing change at some places.
 
My real question is in the title.

BUT, I also I feel torn.

One half of me that loves seeing the world from the air and traveling wants to become a airline pilot or maybe a corp/fractional pilot (Someone told me it's like the difference between a bus driver and a chauffeur).

The other half is saying the piloting profession ain't what it used to be and I should run far, far away. The industry is in a "race to the bottom"...

Or I could become an air traffic controller.

A career in an airline's corporate HQ instead of in the cockpit of a shiny new jet seems to be looking better every day.

BUT, I don't feel like making a living screwing people over (unless I work at somewhere like LUV, B6, UPS, etc.)

Is airline management always the bad guy? I don't get it...

I've got to make a decision because I can either stick with my current college major (Aviation Administration) or transfer into the piloting program.

Advice anyone?

Despite the white collar requirements, airline pilots are labor. That means that management can get anybody to do it cheaper. That is why we have unions and we have been struggling for a long time. It's not necessarily that management is evil, that's just the nature of the business. The reason why Fedex and UPS are not evil is that they pretty much have a monopoly in their market. Have a couple of dozen ups and fedex companies around and see how nice Fedex and UPS would be then to stay competitive.

It could be that we are in a regular down cycle just like any other down cycle in this business. But more and more everyday there is the notion that this might actually be a fairly long one. But yes, piloting will probably never be the same, even in the next upswing.
 
All airlines are in the business to make money.

As pilots, we're part of the machinery to make money. We are a 'cost of goods sold'.

Every publicly traded corporate in America, yes including SWA, B6, FDX and UPS, are looking out for their shareholders, first and foremost. The more the 'machinery' of cranking out sellable product (umm, us! :)) costs, the bitchier the shareholders get and start raising cane at meetings and cutting the share price. Remember, the airline business is run by accountants who if they could slap ".com" on the side of HQ, sell all the airplanes all to make $0.13 more per share of stock, they'd do it without an ounce of guilt. Profit Profit Profit and if they can cut costs 30% and still get butts in seats to make the donuts, they're going to shift that savings to the shareholders pockets.

It's not evil, it's just their job. The Airline Transport Association has their back.

Providing safe, reliable transportation, ensure a positive resellable customer experience and to be compensated as much as possible for the minimum amount of work.

It's my job. My union has my back. It isn't evil, it's just their job to maximize pay:work performed

That's any airline. Don't make the mistake of thinking "everything sucks except these few airlines" because today's "HotPlace2Be Airways" always becomes tomorrow's "DamnBroSucksToBeYou Express".

And it'll go back and forth in perpetuity.

Always has. Always will. And our generation is no different no matter how much we pray we aren't.
Great post Doug... Nicely done. :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

Side note:
Management will always be the s, got no choice. Trust me. But being in management sucks, trust me on that one.
 
It's not just airline management that sucks, pretty much any industry's management sucks. The only for it to not suck is to BE management. In which case YOU suck. ;)

"It's my little way of sticking it to the man"

"But sir, you ARE the man."
 
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