Quote Originally Posted by Ridge View Post
It doesn't need to. It's the airline's own problem if they can't manage their staff well enough.
Of course it doesn't need to. If they chose to staff for it then it will likely force the airline to use flight crews even less efficiently than 117 already does and therefore reduce the flights offered due to lack of crews and then increase cost of the flights that remain to cover loss of passenger seat-miles.

Yes, an effective way to reduce the number of flight cancellations is to reduce the number of flights offered. Other airlines have done it and some have figured out how to survive. For now at least.

I'm not saying there aren't things that can be done. Most of the suggestions in this forum ignore the regulatory environment and actual environment the industry operates in though. Not to mention the CBA's.

The FAA just made it extremely difficult, time consuming, and expensive to get an ATP. Then they required 121 first officers (not just the captain) to have an ATP. Then they knee jerked all new duty/rest regulations to make it even more difficult to use the already dwindling supply of pilots. Mainline carriers will eventually feel the pinch as the number of available of regional pilots they can hire dries up.

The industry will look very different in a couple of years. For better or worse. And it's often hard to imagine it can get worse.