Originally Posted by flight1352

fastair,

I really do appreciate your comments and I, in no way possible, are saying that your comments about WN employees being the highest paid in the industry are incorrect. It is no secret that WN employees ARE the highest paid in the industry, yet WN still manages to continiously make a profit.

However, one thing that must be considered is the amount of employees per aircraft that WN has. WN has a VERY high productivity rate among their employees.

Granted, this chart (which I found online) is a year old (dated June 2010):

http://www.airlinefinancials.com/air...mparisons.html

But just a year ago (according to the chart), despite WN employees being the HIGHEST paid in the US airline industry:

WN has the FEWEST employees per aircraft of all major airlines, while UA has the HIGHEST number.

WN has the FEWERT flight attendants per aircraft of all major airlines, while UA has the HIGHEST number.

WN has the FEWEST pilots per aircraft, while UA has the HIGHEST.

WN has the MOST passengers per employee, while UA is just at the bottom (ranked neck and neck with Continental).

WN has the MOST passengers per flight attendant, while UA has the LEAST.

Now, I am in NO way saying anything against UA front-line employees....NOT AT ALL. What I am pointing out is the level of productivity produced by WN employees compared to UA employees.

I DO understand that flying long-haul, international routes requires far more inflight crew employees than WN requires, but overall....headquarters, ground operations, reservations, etc etc.... WN may pay their employees the MOST in the US, but they are also expected, in general, to have a much higher level of productivity.

I specifically added the "employees per aircraft" and "passengers per employee" rankings so no one can say: "Well, WN flies smaller airplanes." The point is....WN employees (pilots, FAs, ticket/gate agents, ramp, headquarters, etc) DO handle more passengers than any other airline.

Perhaps the key to not only UA's future profitibility (but other carriers, as well) is to better utilize employees.

I am NOT encouraging furloughs, but as fastair mentioned....buyouts....or not replacing employees who leave through natural attrition...getting the numbers more in line with what COULD be done with fewer people...could help lower costs.

I have friends who fly for other airlines and I talk to them and they tell me about their trips and all I can say to them is: "That's ALL you did for three days?"

Cutting costs does NOT mean cutting pay and benefits....it means making your employees more productive.

Again, this post is in NO respect to fastair or UA front-line employees....these type of things are an upper-management decision.