This is clipped from an ALPA union newsletter, regarding the future of air transportation. It refers to a conference in the US including major power players. John Prater is the president of ALPA
Prater used a discussion about oil hedging to question whether air transportation, given its importance to the national economy, should continue to be deregulated. Prater noted that in recent years, oil hedging has given airlines like Southwest an advantage, to the detriment of other carriers. “Do we want to run airlines or do we want to run gambling casinos?” he asked, noting that the country would be better served by an airline industry that is properly coordinated and supported.
It's got me wondering....
I mean aren't all the local municipal public transportation regulated and run by the municipal gov't? Well the world is shrinking fast. Maybe regulation would be for the benefit of all? (haha i always wanted to work for the gov't!)
What do you all think?
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Last edited by Anti-Ice on Wed Apr 08, 2009 6:48 am, edited 2 times in total.
Yup……. Similar to Nav Canada’s. Much the same thinking as far as expenditures go but NC hides behind the fact it tells everybody they are not an arm of the Government(which they are not) but Nav Can certainly wastes the operators coin!!!
This all comes down to what services are considered essential. In a small country (the ones in Europe), any form of transport is viable. In Canada, land transportation has its limits due to the vastness. Air transport is vital, has been for about one hundred years. As a crown corp, nobody ever questioned the viability of AC. Now the country has some thinking to do. The problem is that AC, for various reasons, is no longer considered the best for the job yet in reality it is the only one set up to do the job, ie its model. But it's too late to re-regulate. The competition will cry foul. And rightfully so. Remember a guy named Brian Mulroney? He saw Canada's transportation logistics as being the same as the rest of the world's. I'm sure we can all now see that we are not (well, some of us). A fine mess is what we have. Bad management aside, AC is needed and perhaps can be just as efficient as Canada Post. On the other hand, perhaps we really need full deregulation and watch our flag carrier get gobbled up by foreigners. In Europe that would be a sin. Here, it will be a necessity.
Old fella wrote:Yup……. Similar to Nav Canada’s. Much the same thinking as far as expenditures go but NC hides behind the fact it tells everybody they are not an arm of the Government(which they are not) but Nav Can certainly wastes the operators coin!!!
I'm not going to sit here and yammer on about NavCanada.
However, I would ask you to look up the following:
Transport Canadas Year-End Financials for ATS Services in 1995, and NavCanadas in 1997.
Also look up international Air Nav Service Charges.
I'm not trying to say NavCanada is the most efficient infallable operation in the world by any means, but from the airlines perspective, I really can't see the complaints at least from a monetary standpoint.
There are problems with free enterprise, especially in an area where safety is of critical importance
- The bottom line is, in deregulation, the company with the lowest "costs" wins
- So, basically, the company that pays their pilots and mechanics the least sets the standard
If pilots ever want better pay, working conditions, etc., the industry is going to have to be regulated again, to prevent someone from always rushing in to undercut the companies that pay well
If you want to continually play the totally free market, you're always going to get burned !
- I think many Americans are finally starting to understand that now
For example - WestJet came in, undercutting AC, and its well paid employee group - Now, years later, WestJet's labour costs are creeping higher and higher - and now other companies are trying to undercut them - JetsGo was the first, now Canjet and Sunwings are doing the same
That is the concept of the unregulated free market - its a race to the bottom!
I can't think of any way in which deregulation in any industry has worked - They always say, "oh, we're going to deregulate the local power companies - your rates are going to go way down!"
And they do - for one year, and then they soon are higher than before
Since the deregulation of the airline industry, the industry has been a mess - No one can operate a consistently profitable venture, other than Southwest, which is basically a self-loading freight company
Its a societal-wide problem - take walmart, or toyota, as examples - They enter the market, undercut everyone else because of their low labour costs - everyone buys their product, because its so cheap
but every time a GM worker is laid off, thats one less person who can afford to buy a ticket on my airline! The guy replacing him at toyota for half the salary can't do it -
so eventually, you get to a point, as we have, where no one in the country can afford to shop anywhere BUT Walmart, or buy any car that isn't a toyota
So the argument that prices are lower because of total deregulation and outsourcing - is BS! That price reduction is only because people are forced to work for less, which means they can only afford lower prices for everything
It has nothing to do with authentic price reductions, brought on by increased efficiency and technology
This is what has destroyed American (North American) prosperity.
at the end of the day It cost money to transport....very socialiste view, but when you pay less,... somebody is paying for you... maybe you're paying for it with lower wages and longer hours or the lower than acceptable workmaship and you'll be cursing some days for it.... but, work with better standard, shop with better standard and you'll live with better standards...
