mdtony -

you are missing the point. it's not the pay, it's the productivity. my understanding is that southwest employees are very well compensated (especially pilots and f/a's). but their contracts are structured in a way that makes them much more productive. it's not so much the costs, its what you get in return.

but therein lies the problem. i don't see any of the other majors (and WN is a major), being able to restructure labor contracts in a way that gives them a substantial increase in productivity. Can you see US Airways empoyee groups like to think they should be paid equal to or better than the big 3. yet their productivity lags behind UA, AA, and DL, let alone WN.

i'd be interested to know what the employee/airplane ration is at WN vs the rest of the industry. seems to me that WN does a lot more with less.