Posted by Jason, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Apr 10, 2012 at 10:11 am
This is unfortunate, but the reality is that United Airlines cannot compete. Now that Southwest is flying from the Bay Area to Denver (one of United's main hubs), I am sure they are putting some serious hurt on United. United is a classic case of unions driving a company into the ground.
On another note, the operations at Oakland Airport are the pits. The maintenance and cleanliness of the airport is a joke, the food services are pathetic, and it takes forever to get your bags. The economy is much more robust, and their are more thriving companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. If United is cutting flights in the Bay area, it makes sense that Oakland is going to lose out. Too bad it affects the whole East Bay.
Posted by sumati, a resident of the Castlewood neighborhood, on Apr 10, 2012 at 12:59 pm
I have to disagree with Jason.. I fly out of oakland all the time (on SW) and the airport is clean, lots of excellent food choices, very little flight delays due to weather and parking etc is much cheaper and easier to get out of than SFO. United's decision is purely an economic one associated with cheaper (and IMHO) better choices available in Oakland. I have 850k miles on UA and its service level has gone progressively down hill while SW has gone up...
Posted by Jonathan, a resident of the Beratlis Place neighborhood, on Apr 10, 2012 at 1:25 pm
I think United should declare bankruptcy, bust up their union, and then restart the company a day or two later. Continental did this some years back, hiring back its ex-union pilots at 40% what they had been making. I personally like the idea of pilots making $16 bucks an hour and having to work at Starbucks in order to make ends meet. It really makes the skies so much safer and friendlier.
Posted by Jonathan, a resident of the Beratlis Place neighborhood, on Apr 10, 2012 at 6:52 pm
The following was written about the Continental carrier that went down a couple years ago outside of Buffalo, New York. I have provided it for the edification of the insipid little scumbag who posted above me.
"Officials with Continental's regional carrier, Colgan Air Inc., acknowledged at the hearing that Shaw was paid about $23 an hour and had a salary of $16,254, although she could have earned more if she worked extra hours.
She previously had a second job working in a coffee shop.
The salary of the pilot, Capt. Marvin Renslow, who commuted from his home in Florida, was not disclosed during the proceedings. But Colgan said the average salary for its pilots is around $55,000."
The article continues:
"Hudson River hero pilot expressed concern
Just over 10 days after the crash, the pilot who guided his disabled passenger jet to a safe splash landing in New York's Hudson River in January told a U.S. congressional aviation committee the "untenable financial situation" for pilots and their families leaves him "worried about the future of the profession."
Sullenberger, who was hailed as a hero for his calm actions on Jan. 15 as pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, warned of "negative consequences" to the safety of the industry without experienced pilots, who have been forced to accept massive salary and pension cuts from airline companies focused on trimming costs.
"I do not know a single, professional airline pilot who wants his or her children to follow in their footsteps," Sullenberger told the committee at the time."
Posted by Jonathan is right, a resident of another community, on Apr 10, 2012 at 8:10 pm
United declared bankruptcy in 2003, cut pilot wages by more than 50%, stole the entire pension and continues to pay senior management multi-million dollar bonuses regularly.
There are almost 1500 pilots who are on furlough and even though the airline is trying to hire them on the Continental side, nearly none are accepting the job. It sucks that bad.
The only thing the traveling public ever looks at is the cheapest fare. Well guys, you get what you pay for. Remember Valuejet? Oh yeah, they changed their name to Air Tran to escape the bad press about their crash.
What you should worry about is out sourced maintenance and management that will not let a captain refuse to fly a broken jet. Happens all the time at the cheap carriers. Buy hey, all you want is cheap fares so you can take your chances.
Posted by Vanessa, a resident of the Birdland neighborhood, on Apr 10, 2012 at 9:48 pm
C'mon Steve! Get your posse of tea party vigilantes together and stand your ground! Don't let these loony libs snow you with facts. Tell 'em a thing or too! The British Socialists are coming, Steve, and only you can save us!!!!!!!! Don't let them think that you're nothing but a sick joke!!!!!!
Posted by sumati, a resident of the Castlewood neighborhood, on Apr 11, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Pilot pay is a real problem, one that is magnified by the outsourcing to the regional carriers that Jonathan discusses in the Continental crash. They are paid nothing and in many cases fly for the love of the profession while trying to secure a more highly paid job with a larger carrier. One correction on the valuejet crash (and yes they changed their name to AirTran).. that was the result of oxygen containers improperly placed and secured into the cargo hold and not because of pilot error. The state of the Airline industry is in many cases one of their own making for many of the larger carriers and their unions... Southwest does pay their pilots a good salary, does not charge for luggage, arrives on time and makes money.. has for years.. and provides a competitive price to the market... I don't think a blanket statement that the consumers looking for the cheapest fares should be blamed for this. I think the airlines themselves have a lot of blame for the state of their industry. Anecdotally if you look at the past five years the airlines have set records for safety per passenger mile.
Posted by Steve, a resident of the Parkside neighborhood, on Apr 11, 2012 at 6:24 pm
I thought there were controls on this website against the same person ousting under multiple names. Surely, there can't be that many union lackeys on this one post about the relocation of United to SF. If the union was so good for United, why did they have to file for bankruptcy in the first place? Oh, there's no way there inflated salaries and benefits could have anything to do with that situation, nor could it be the extreme work rules in their contracts that keep productivity down. Nope, unions must be the way to go, which is why so many private companies are signing up for signing away their autonomy.
Jonathan, thanks for confirming my opinion of you as the whiney, little elite leftist you are, with your name calling in place of a coherent argument. Once you graduate from charm school, come back and argue your point without stamping your feet and turning blue.
Posted by Vanessa, a resident of the Birdland neighborhood, on Apr 11, 2012 at 7:13 pm
Way to go Steve. That's right. Don't deal with those libbers' facts, just call them the whiney little elitists that they are. There's no pilot on earth who deserves to make more than 23 bucks an hour. Average pilot salary of 55 thousand a year is way extravagent -- wish part-time bartenders made that much! Why deal with facts or arguments when the little elitists do? Besides, they must all be one person.
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