GLAMOUR GONE: THE DECLINE OF THE AIRLINE CAREER
The once-envied lifestyle of jet setting glamour that airline crew members enjoyed has become merely a job…one of disappointment, heartbreak, and loneliness. Reductions in pay, benefits, retirements, and increases in work days away from home have created careers which will give airlines difficulty recruiting and retaining talented people in the future.
During my career as an airline pilot I've seen the airlines alter their business models from a high-end luxury service, to one of commonplace high-capacity basic transportation. The airlines made that shift without engaging their employees, and as a result, entered into a period of dramatic cost-cutting. With aircraft prices, airport facilities, and even fuel costs fixed for the long term, or changes such as fuel price volatility absorbed as a necessity for keeping the companies aloft, the only place left for airline managements to force cost-cutting measures was the employees, and the industry as a whole engaged and competed in a race to the bottom. Airlines successfully used the out-of-date corporate bankruptcy laws as a strategic business tool, forcing wage cuts, reductions in forces, increased flight time away from home, and the loss of basic promises such as health care and retirement funding upon career employees. The government, airline industry lobbying groups, and the court systems methodically restricted the use of union industrial action to counter the decimation of contracts with employees. In short, airline employees subsidized low fares.
In response to the trimmed-down bare-bones business models, airline traffic flourished and the flying public took to the skies in ever increasing numbers, as it was less expensive to fly to many destinations than drive their automobiles. However, this democratization of airline travel destroyed the very careers that powered the expansion. Pilots and flight attendants spent increasingly more time away from home than ever in the history of aviation. Flight crews and ground support personnel worked longer days, and nights, forced to do more with less. As airline companies ordered incredible aircraft which could fly halfway around the globe without stopping to refuel, they required overworked crews to operate the flights as if there was no difference from a short domestic hop.
http://www.f8mag.com/projects/item/glamour-gone
excellent photos that tell the story at the link...
= new reply since forum marked as read
