Bob,
AA claims to have the highest Labor CASM, yet we are the lowest compensated of the legacy carriers.
How can this be, apples to apples?
Simple, when a company outsources work the fees paid to the vendor are not counted as a Labor Cost. As I said AA says that their non-labor costs are in-line, it should be much better than in line because when/if AA outsources to levels that they seek it will drive those non-labor costs up. The fact that their non-labor costs are not much lower shows that AA has not properly managed those non-labor costs.