It's not the UAL pilot contract which prevents the productivity, it's the lower utilization of the aircraft resulting from the hub-and-spoke structure. The UAL pilot contract allows UAL to build the schedules to 83 hours per month. All UAL has to do if find ways to keep their airplanes flying, instead of sitting at the gate, and they'll be able to build those more efficient pilot and F/A schedules. The problem is in how to do that while maintaining a comprehensive hub-and-spoke system. So far, nobody's been able to combine the two.

Efficient schedules are GOOD for the pilots. We want efficient schedules so we can put in more flight hours in fewer days per month which means more time at home for the same money. This is demonstrated by the SWA schedules which had a MINIMUM of 17 days off in the example cited. That's good for us and it's good for the airline.

I'm not sure where that $150k figure comes from but here are the real numbers. The current top "per trip" pay at SWA is $133.92 which increases in September to $139.28 and eventually to $173.63 in 2006. There is no minimum guarentee for SWA pilot line holders but, as I indicated above, the real lines run in the 90-102 "trips" range. If we take the average of 96 tips per month on a line that's $154,275 per year today raising to $200,021/yr in 2006. That is just salary and doesn't include per diem (another $6000-$8000/yr), profit sharing ($14,000 last year for my friend) 7% 401k match ($10,800) and stock options. I'm up to about $186,000 for an average Captain this year not counting stock options--all for flying from PHX to BWI (plus a few dozen other cities).

One reason UAL's recent pilot productivity is so low is that UAL management has cut flights faster then they have furloughed pilots. That number will go back up once they've downsized the pilot group to match the reduced level of flying. Once again, this is completely controlled by UAL management, not the pilot's contract.