Arkansas State Motto: At least we're not Alabama!
(Alabama State Motto: At least we're not Mississippi!)
I take issue with the company with both those numbers. I really don’t see how they come up with a GAIN of 1% from the new rest rules. It seems that, even if you gut the PWA and go with bare bones FAR’s (which I think would evoke the same reaction from the pilot group as trying to pass an extension without memrat,) I still don’t see how the new rules come out any better/worse than net neutral. You’ve lost 24 hour international reserves and restricted their duty days, extended rest periods, and put in daily, weekly, and monthly duty limits. I fail to see how adding an hour of drop-dead block time equalizes that out.
And I think the company is twisting the facts when they say we were 1000 over this winter. Just take a look at the 22.D numbers from the latest AE. The 22.D.3 (where the active pilots will be in Nov, after all training is complete from the latest AE,) shows roughly 10,600 active pilots. The 22.D.2 numbers (how many bodies we “need” - which is for August – I.E. peak block hours,) currently on DLnet show us needing roughly 10,140 pilots. So the overage is only about 460 pilots. And as I understand it, if we get close to the 22.D.2 numbers, we’re getting close to a staffing crisis.
And maybe they do plan to create their own crisis. In that case, I hope all of us are smart enough to tell our reps in no uncertain terms that it is not the pilots’ responsibility to grant relief to management for a crisis they created - especially when we warned them it was coming!
Alright, enough seriousness. The stock market’s closed, the news is slow, and the weather is great, even if you have to fly today! Fly safe if you have to fly, and enjoy the weekend if you don't!