I beg to differ with you. During the 70's and 80's USAir had no competition in many of their short-haul east coast markets and as such, gouged the business traveler in the process...by charging exorbinant fares from PIT to places like AVP, BGM, ERI, and MDT. Furthermore, it is easy to have the "perception" that you were treated with dignity, respect, and compassion when the company was raking in money hand-over-fist with high fares and practically non-existent competition. In that environment, the company expanded by opening new markets, ordering additional aircraft, and hiring more people.
When the going gets rough however...by way of changing market dynamics which heretofore have resulted in continuous operating losses for USAir(ways), the company...any company for that matter...must make tough decisions in which the front-line employees will inevitably be at the affect of. There is a tendency for employees to react in a way in which they think the company is doing something "to them"...when the reality of it is that the company is merely taking measures to survive, let alone return to profitability.
In other words, comparing today's US Airways to "how it was" is a fundamentally flawed comparison because the market dynamics are completely different. The USAir model of no competition and rediculously high fares was not a business model that could be sustainable over the long term in a hyper-competitive, deregulated environment by a carrier with residual legacy carrier costs.
I am not a US Airways management apologist per se, but just sayin' what the reality of the situation actually is.
~J A M A K E 1
I respectfully disagree with you as well.
Making tough decisions in business is one thing
Making ignorant decisions at the expense of your employees is reckless.
These guys do what they want - then blame everyone but themselves when it doesn't work out.
You said:
"The USAir model of no competition and rediculously high fares was not a business model that could be sustainable over the long term in a hyper-competitive, deregulated environment by a carrier with residual legacy carrier costs."
Well I am sorry - I might have been around during the "model of non-competition" but if you really think SWA and others (including US Airways today) "don't gouge" or maximize profits on markets they dominate, you would be kidding yourself a
nd you would be wrong. Business 101 : maximize profitability on a route or a service that you dominate or can provide.
And regardless - we were making money and we were treated well. That doesn't cost a thing. Now I still get a paycheck - but a fraction of what it once was - much like my company.
It's no different than the gas station that's next to airport (and rental car return) you know the one that charges 40 cents more a gallon. (Unlike here - at least at the gas station you know about it it up front ) You don't have to fill up there - but you do because you were running late and because it's convenient your NOW going to pay for it.
Kinda like what AMR did under Crandall with yield management....you know the dark art that allows airline to price their tickets to actually make a profit. You want a non stop from LAX-DFW at 5 pm its going to be $600 O/W Want to go from LAX-TUL via DFW at 5 am ..... $250 R/T. I know this is a foreign concept because the boobs from Tempe all but did away with that in lieu of just
"fillin up the plane". Even though we are flying around full we are still losing money. We continue to still have the highest load factor in the industry yet still have the lowest yield.
Why?
But if am correct and using your logic - it's OK that airline workers can have their retirement and pay decimated (as long as you get cheap airfare), my colleague's and I can can subsidize those $100 tickets for weekends in LAS so as to be "competitive" even though unprofitable. More like brain dead.
Businesses are in Business to make money. Free Market Capitalism.
I am not even going to go into the whole "privatize profits and socialize losses" mentality that has taken over ALL of business today, but fathom this:
The middle class jobs of the 1950s-1980s you know when an airline employee could earn a decent wage and retire and god forbid send their kids to college - the outrage!!!!! But these corporate criminals would have you believe that " the unions" are to blame for the economy tanking and the loss of jobs in America. I say "Bravo Sierra"!
Companies can still pay a fare wage and still make money.
Companies do have to protect themselves in economic downturns with layoffs and salary reductions to keep the doors open. Those are the tough decisions that management has to make sometimes. The reason the doors almost shut here to begin with wasn't because the employees were overpaid - it's because BAD decisions were made again and again and it seems our management was overcompensated for the service they had provided. Every time a management team left they left with millions and millions of dollars and then the employees were asked to pick up the tab by the incoming CEO because they said it's going to be "different this time but they just need 191 million". :angry:
Like I said before "I am still waiting".
So you keep believing that when market dynamics change it OK for a company to stop treating their employees with "dignity, respect, or compassion", you know like TEMPE treats the employees and our customers as long as they fill the seat and you get your cheap airfare. Besides those pesky passengers have come to expect way too much anyway. Wasn't that a Parkerism?
"Who cares about if I got Deep Vein Thrombosis on my flight to PHX - I got a $99 ticket".
It's the "Legacy Costs", the unions, and the employees that are to blame for all of this. Just look at SWA and CAL.
Convince yourself that a pilot that makes 17K a year with 200 hours experience is every bit a experienced as that greedy bastard with decades of experience making 70K a year. Gee we could could save 53K a year if we could devise a way to make them quit and hire some "cheap ones". Think of the bonuses we could hand out.
"What if we outsource our heavy maintenance to San Salvador so we can lay off all those overpaid mechanics. We can get it done cheaper at a sweat shop MRO in San Salvador that would probably give us a little $$kick back$$. That's what Franke would have done. Win Win for Team Tempe. What about those old Flight Attendants - we can make all there lives miserable. Their Union won't do anything and we can force them to fly till they drop and make reserve 20 years so they will quit. Now we can replace them young, dumb and cheap ones that we can control. So who cares if they didn't graduate High School much less college - they are Flight Attendants. Now if we can just get rid of those expensive computer systems - think of all the money we could save."
Slot transaction - let's see we get rid of 125 slots, our terminal, and get 42 in return in DCA (where we are already dominant) and route authority we will never fly - net loss 83 slots and a terminal. We are genius.
"We are the true captains of industry- Right"?
No just tidbits of things that have actually been posted on this board.
Well if you believe this malarkey - I only have one thing to ask you:
When can you start as Executive V.P. to the Director of the Assistant to the Manager of the Department of WASTE OF OXYGEN in Tempe?
We have a great benefits program - just ask our employees.
Like I said .....I respectfully disagree.
