What's It Gonna Take?

I may be opening up a can of worms here but my wife and I were talking about this today and I was wondering what all you guys thought of this. We had a conversation about what it is going to take to fix the airline industry. We all know that the airlines are not really a great places to work and some of us remember when the airlines were a great place to work. I started my airline career with a carrier that had an 80 year track record of never laying people off and still got the axe. I think that I started my airline career right at the time when the pluses of working for airlines started to decline. I love my job and really can't see doing anything else but working for one of these once great companies is not what it used to be.

I know that the price of oil has decemated the slim profit margins that the airlines rely on. I also know that next to oil, personel is the next highest cost. The first thing that an airline in trouble seeks out now a days is concessions from the work groups. The problem is that over the years the airline employees have given back so much that, come contract time, the company can tout a smalll pay increase even though in reallity you are just getting back what you gave up and most times just a percent of what you gave up.

The cost of living has out paced all airline jobs. Making 60-70k a year sounds great but just is not what it used to be 10-15 years ago. When I see people like Geologists with 1-2 years experience and a BS degree making 107,000 bucks a year and I have to struggle to make ends meet while working to keep a 110 million dollar plane up in the sky, it seems un fair to me. My wife is a furloughed pilot and the pilot group is fairing no better. I know they make more money than we do but not the kind of money they made 15 years ago while of course working more hours.

The only thing that I can think of to fix the situation is to increase fairs. The fair structure at the airlines has been the same for the last 20 years. It pretty much costs the same to fly from Oakland to Denver today as it did in 1990, it may even be cheaper! I think that if the cost of a Big-Mac can go up in 20 years than the price of an airline ticket should go up also. That's not to say we should double or triple our fairs but a modest increase of $5-10 is not too much to ask for.

The big rumor in the pilot world is that airlines are looking into hiring pilots from overseas to fly domestic routes because they can get them cheaper. I do not think it's too much of a leap to see airline shutting down and outsourcing their maintenance departments as a whole. Remember what Alaska Airline did to the hangar in Oakland or how Northwest Airlines treated their mechanics a few years ago? If something does not change we are in a slow death spiral of and industry and there is no way out.

Where The Jobs Are!

This past week I went to Daytona Beach FL to attend the homecoming at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. One of the main events was the Career Expo. Companies interested in ERAU grads. were there and could talk to the up and coming young prospects about their companies and such.

Now, I was not too keen on attending this thing. Being a 18 year airline vet my opinion of most of the industry is pretty jaded. I was expecting to hear a lot of excuses as to why these companies were not hiring, which I did hear a fair amount of. The big surprise for me was that there are companies out there hiring mechanics. My wife a (furloughed) pilot was gathering info for another friend of ours who is also out of work. The conversation would go something like this:

"Hello are you guys doing any (pilot) hiring now or any time soon?"

To which a bunch of the companies replied:

"No, we are not hiring pilots right now, we are looking for mechanics."

So, after they picked me up off the floor and used smelling salts to revive me, I recovered enough to ask some questions and here's what I found out:

The companies hiring right now are not the ones I would call first tier jobs. These are smaller companies. Not quite main stream ones-second tier companies.

I'm talking about places like:

Air Wisconsin-looking for A&P mechs and ONE inspector for St. Louis and I believe Philly. Top out is $29/hr.

Gulfstream-looking for A&P mechs for their manufacturing facilities in GA. Starting pay $12.50-13.75.

Textron-helicopter engine assembly and overhaul. Starting pay $12/hr.

A couple of "Air Service" companies (think contract maintenance). Paying $15-18/hr.

So people are hiring mechanics but if you are expecting to get any where close to airline pay-forget about it. Oh and be prepared to move to St. Louis.