Localizer wrote:Saabguy,
I realize AC reported a loss, but most of that loss is due to currency exchange (strength of the American dollar) then operation, AC has more than enough tools that make the "operation" profitable.
I was trying to (unsuccessfully) find the article about airline executives .. it was interesting because AC has more executives than AMR, United, and US Airways combined with a fleet 1/3 the size. I have an idea where more savings could be found, don't you?
Its amazing how private companies today continue to loss money, and how employees are expected "donate" to help raise the bottom line to keep their employment while executive compensation continues to sky rocket at an astounding rate.
The public sector gravy train seems to have plenty of steam! 15% pay increase, work less hours!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/w ... -1.2252453
Localizer, the foreign exchange impact noted in AC's release was $161 million of the $341 million net loss, or about 47%: hardly "most". And that's actually beside the point: so long as AC needs to swap its (primarily) Canadian dollar revenue stream to purchase US dollars to pay for Jet A and other US dollar-denominated expenses, FX has a very real P&L and cash impact. You can't just dismiss it as "non operating" and therefore somehow irrelevant, unless somebody figures out a way to make transport category aircraft run on pixie dust. AC's operating loss for Q1, by the way, was $61 million: I'm pretty sure that if AC had "more than enough tools that make the "operation" profitable"", they would've used them. No management team enjoys starting the year with a first-quarter loss.
To your point on AC's executive team, I've seen similar comments ad nauseum on other threads here, and unfortunately, those comments are just wrong. AC has 24 executives profiled on its Investor Relations site, United Continental has 23, and yes, AMR has 9. That doesn't mean AMR only has 9 executives: I can guarantee you that AMR has executives running its legal department, its maintenance and engineering group, its network planning team, its marketing department, cargo, corporate strategy, financial planning & analysis, etc. etc. etc.: all the functions Air Canada has. Just because they're not on the AMR website doesn't mean they don't exist and that they aren't compensated.
A more appropriate measure might be to look at the compensation of the top 5 Named Executive Officers in each of the companies you mentioned, which is required to be disclosed under securities laws. Air Canada's NEOs collectively earned $15.1 million in 2013. The United Continental NEOs earned $20.0 million in 2013. And the AMR NEOs earned $57.2 million in 2013, during which the airline was in bankruptcy! A better measure than looking at compensation against fleet size would be to compare it against the returns generated and the actual results achieved - the factors reviewed by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors of each of the airlines you mentioned are outlined in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail on SEDAR and EDGAR - it just takes a bit of digging to find them and read them.
Bottom line, of course, is that it's all about supply and demand. Many pilots seem not to understand this, but there just aren't that many people in the business qualified to be the CEO of a major international airline. Or CFO, or CIO, for that matter, or many of the other top executive positions. There are, by contrast, a boat-load of folks running around with ATPLs. If you'd like to make more money, feel free to spend several years of your life in graduate school studying law, or economics, or taking your MBA, and then spend the next 20-30 years of your career working your way through multiple management positions, as a solo agent (no seniority or CALPA protection for you!), with the risks, responsibilities, the 80+ hour weeks, and the profile (particularly in the event of failure) entailed by that career choice. Alternately, you might consider the Windsor Fire Department - I hear from reliable sources they just got a pretty sweet deal.
