Originally Posted by
GUWonder
Just curious but which airlines do you fly to North America that have no record of getting massive government bailouts and/or of using their loyalty program schemes for a Ponzi-like financial lift? SAS’s financial bleed seems like minnow flow compared to the past bleed of much bigger TATL-flying whales.
I'm unclear on the relevance. I care about fare cost, service and reach. The TATL-flying whales as you call them, provide me with a lower fare cost, a better service and greater reach. SAS seems to struggle to compete and labor cost is and has been a large contributing factor to that.
Originally Posted by
RoyalSwazi
Scandinavia is a high cost region, hence salaries reflect this. Wizzair tried to combat this by flying in cheap Polish crews, but this failed. I’m no socialist, but I’m a huge believer in being able to live off your salary.
The high cost of living is largely artificial and we're at a point where cost needs to go down rather than prices go up and salaries with it. There is little rational argument for similar products and services costing half or less in other Western European countries. There are of course still plenty of people in Sweden who believe that prices there are higher because the truck driver needs to drive further than say Germany but this is of course an irrelevant factor. Globalisation is bringing corrections but at a very slow pace. I am also a huge believer in being able to live off your salary but through cost control, affordable housing, enabling competition and making sure bureaucracy isn't artificially driving up cost. Scandinavia isn't doing a great job in those areas.