trent890

The number of furloughed pilots that would be offered recall to PHX was published by the company as being 66 pilots. 35 of those pilots are generally the more senior furloughed pilots and get first shot at a voluntary recall to PHX in seniority order. The company had indicated that it was looking to place 5 recall pilots into every upcoming indoc class, so at this point this is more of a "gradual" recall, rather than finding out all at once how many pilots are accepting recall. The recalled pilots should be placed on the active West seniority list as soon as they report to their assigned indoc class. As you can see from the following post, for the 9/16 indoc class, this is already occurring:

Once the group of 35 have all been offered a class date, then they will probably offer the PHX positions voluntarily to the 18 pre-merger West pilots who are working on the East, as well as any of the 13 third-listers who worked in the West prior to being furloughed in 2008. Anyone from these groups of 18/13 who voluntarily returns to PHX is actively flying now and would not require a return to indoc. So the company would place any of these pilots on the active West seniority list in whichever bid month that their return to PHX becomes effective.

When there is no longer anyone in the groups of 35/18/13 that accepts a voluntary recall to PHX, then I believe it is the company's intention to go through the groups of 18/35 pilots in inverse seniority order for the involuntary or "forced" recall to PHX. Any of the 18 West pilots currently flying on the East will be able to stay on the East, but will lose the advantages of their prior service with America West, such that the company would adjust their date of hire to treat them as a 2011 new-hire. After this, the 35 West pilots who did not accept voluntary recall will be required to return to PHX in inverse seniority order, or have their name permanently removed from the seniority list. It is my understanding that the 13 third-list pilots will not be required to return to PHX, and may choose to stay working on the East while maintaining their original 2008 date of hire because they were hired by US Airways and placed on the West by the company more than a couple of years post-merger.