Originally Posted by APC225

MEC

Since the Company announced the current reduction in flying due to the corona virus, we've received many questions regarding furloughs. Currently, the short-term reduction in flying is causing multiple categories to be overstaffed. The Company has many contractual tools available to mitigate short term overstaffing situations including additional monthly vacation awards, COLAs, surplus reduction lines, lower LPA (line production averages), vacancy cancellations, etc.

Does this mean the Company is planning a furlough? No, and the Company is being aggressive to prevent them.

For furloughs to occur, the Company must consider the high cost of the contract implications listed below and the amount of time it takes to displace and re-train pilots down through the system to eventually furlough from the bottom of the list. The same process applies when recalling- they must slowly bid and re-train all those pilots back up the ladder. This process is difficult by design and is an extremely expensive and cumbersome process that the Company does not undertake lightly. The Company would need to project that this overstaffing situation would last a significant period of time for a furlough to be seriously considered. Otherwise, it's cheaper and more efficient to carry the extra pilots than it is to go through the expense of furlough and recall.

In addition to the high cost of displacement, we have many items in our contract that discourage the Company from furloughing pilots.

The following are the numerous contractual provisions protecting our pilots from furlough:

Originally Posted by nuball5

Furloughs are like a bad marriage. It’s usually cheaper and the better decision to stay married to someone you don’t want to be with anymore.

Originally Posted by nuball5

Furloughs are like a bad marriage. It’s usually cheaper and the better decision to stay married to someone you don’t want to be with anymore.

Originally Posted by drywhitetoast

A full yellow airplane means an empty trailer park.

Originally Posted by WhisperJet

In the next 30 days we will “furlough” 37 pilots...

...off the top of the list. Attrition is our friend right now.

Originally Posted by jaypilot21

we just have to hope that 67 doesn't come into play. We all seen how that worked out during our last economic down turn.

Originally Posted by WhisperJet

In the next 30 days we will “furlough” 37 pilots...

...off the top of the list. Attrition is our friend right now.

Originally Posted by nopac6

Not really. Israel just announced they’re going into lockdown and turning away flights from the usa soon. That’s probably 5-6 airplanes with no place to go (3 flights per day). The main consequence of that is a LOT of extra wide body f/o’s . The extra captains will be mitigated through retirements but not the f/o’s. Multiply that by all the international flights flying around right now with 150-200 empty seats and you have a crap ton of junior wide body f/o’s in surplus. Even if they try to use some of those wide bodies on domestic routes you still have lots of f/o’s in surplus because domestic flying won’t require augmentation.

As far as “astronomical” training costs from a furlough, again, not really. The bottom 1500-2000 wide buddy f/o’s get bumped down to narrow body f/o and current narrow body f/o’s get furloughed. That’s only 1 training event during the contraction. And most of the contractual protections don’t apply to the bottom 4000 or so pilots (hired after Jan 2016).

i don’t mean to **** on the parade but anybody in the bottom 2000 who isn’t getting ready for the worst isn’t being realistic.