Should the economy turn down during the contract period, the pilots, having expected to collect 95 percent of the airline's profits, will in fact be entitled to 115 percent of the airline's profits.
That statement is tautologically false since pilots are paid salaries which decidedly is not profit. According to this thread in 2002, the pilot's share of all operating expenses are 3-5%: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/re...
I.e the 95% figure needs a cite otherwise it's bullshit.
Not that this other pg doesn't play pretty loose with the facts when it suits him, but I think it's clear he's not talking about literal bookkeeping "profit," but what the airline has left after making all payments besides pilots' salary. I.e., if you were the pilots' union, after examining the books and holding other parties as fixed, this is the pile of money that is going to be divided between you and the shareholders.
Airline profit margins are around 1% of revenue, BTW. (And there's always a question of who captures the surplus from trade.)
Airlines and their unions have a very rough relationship. In a prior life I helped a client who was managing the firewall for an airline union. They were constantly under serious attack, and asking me how they could make their attackers' lives miserable.
That statement is tautologically false since pilots are paid salaries which decidedly is not profit. According to this thread in 2002, the pilot's share of all operating expenses are 3-5%: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/re...
I.e the 95% figure needs a cite otherwise it's bullshit.