Actually, the highest paid pilots in the industry fly for Southwest. In a message dated 2/17/2006 11:08:36 AM Central Standard Time, Niraj.Agarwalla@xxxxxxx writes: It's a sign of the times. The only way to compete, domestically at least, is either to cut cost and/or increase productivity. Legacy carriers, especially in regards to paying their pilots, are just not competitive with LCCs.