I think that 48% number might be a little high if you're comparing reserve guarantees. SWA's reserve guarantee is 90 TFP. Their 12 year Captain (TFP) rate is $186.06. That would be $200,944.80 W-2. Our current (in 2012) 12 year Captain MD-88 rate is $167.68. At the 70 hour reserve guarantee, that would be $140,851.20 W-2. Percentage increase required to bring $140,851.20 up to $200,944.80 = 42.7%.

Now if you're talking reality... According to SWAPA, their average reserve makes 105 TFP per month. For the 12 year Captain, that results in a W-2 of $234,435.60. I don't know what our average MD-88 reserve Captain gets per month, but I suspect it's not a whole lot over 70. Then you're talking well over a 60% increase needed to match the average SWA reserve Captain.

While we're on this, let's take a look at the average MD-88 Captain versus the average SWA Captain. Let's assume that our average MD-88 Captain gets 80 hours per month. According to SWAPA, their average pilot gets 105 TFP per month (yes, the same as their reserves). So we're still looking at an average Captain W-2 of $234,435.60. Our 12 year MD-88 Captain at 80 hours per month is getting a W-2 of $160,972.80. Percentage increase needed for parity with SWA = 45.5%.