This subject always makes me scratch my head. What is it that the folks in management do for an airline that requires so many folks and so much money? As a user of the system the folks I see as airline employees are the ones who really keep the airline running. I realize there are always going to be folks behind the scenes that do accounting, logistics, planning and so on but how many people are needed for those jobs? Why is this the repeating story that management get bonuses and the "workers" get pay cuts and downsized? so confusing...
One day during my flight training I was picking on my instructor for driving a "junker" car (as I called it). He replied that he would much rather have a "nice" airplane and an "affordable" car, than they other way around.
As I pondered that statement I realized that most of us could not have a luxury car and a luxury airplane at the same time. I realized that sometimes we must decide which vehicle gives us the most pleasure. What if I drove a car that cost $10K instead of $35K and used the savings from that decision to rent planes more often. Even better what if I trimmed out the paid TV subscription, made coffee at home instead of stopping at the coffee outlet every morning, or found some other expenses that crept into the budget that do not really fulfill me like flying does?
This is exactly the exercise I am doing today - reworking the monthly budget so that I can fly at least 3 hours/month. Sailplanes are looking like a lot of fun the money as well as some these cool new LSAs they rent at my local airport.
