Political Fever - The Political Debate Forums - View Single Post - Airlines Asking Consumers To Help Fight Rising Prices

Finny · #15 (**permalink**) 07-11-2008, 10:55 PM

Its a damn shame Skerlnik is missing the finer points of running a business. Airlines have never been "technically" profitable. They run debts all the time. They had debts before rising oil prices and they are running on debt now.

It comes down to Airlines decided they could fly everywhere. So their budgets bloated because instead of having a hundred flights a day.. they have a few hundred. You don't need to fly into places like Dayton when Columbus or Cincy are less then an hour away. You also don't have to fly in to places like Hagerstown, Md when DC and Baltimore are a hour a way.

You don't need to have 3 routes for the same Airline at 3 different airports flying to the same city.. when the airports are in a 30 mile radius. I.E. BWI, Dulles and Ronald Reagan International (this also works for NYC).

US Airways has 2 Hubs just on the East Coast..(Charlotte, Philly), it use to be 4 ( those 2,Boston and Pittsburgh).. They learned their lesson.. too many Hubs leaves you with greater debts as having a Hub is a lot of overhead.

Another thing is the Unions. They love to bitch and moan about not being paid enough, They'll cry to the courts about its being a contract. But at the end of the day they also cause a drain with Operating costs. You want to cut costs.. cut everywhere. That means salaries and wages. The Judge presiding over the Bankruptcy of US Airways told the Unions this. There was a 6 to 30% pay cuts to wages and salaries and it saved US Airways 300 million dollars.

The irony is you'd think Unions would take a cut if it means saving their jobs, but its rarely the case.

Saving 300 million is better then saving the "supposed" salary of 50 million Sherlnik put out there. Having Stocks doesn't mean jack as its not a salary.