Originally Posted by
deadinabsentia
The issue is the regional carriers aren't paying. Period.
The issue is that Americans are not paying enough to make airlines profitable enough on a long term basis to pay them more. It was fine under regulation when they competed on service, with fixed income then it became ever lower income for increasing overhead.
ALL legacies were saddled with union pay scales and went under. SW was not a legacy when the deregulation started and so has been profitable so far.
Pan AM, TWA, Braniff, Eastern, CO, UA, AA, DL and NW, US all have gone under and either resurfaced or stayed down.
The problems with airline unions is that they cater to their entrenched members at the expense of long term growth.
That is why these companies go bankrupt to avoid this and do a reset.