Originally Posted by ERJ135
not sure I understand, what is the severance plan for officers mean?
Typical in the corporate world. You have your top couple hundred execs and when times get tough, cuts must be made. I know of airline managers who get "furloughed", and they go to lower level jobs. But sometimes you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time and your job gets cut, and you can't go down a level. This is why they have severance packages.
Imagine you were a 767 Captain for delta (pretty senior), then Delta retires the 767 fleet. Instead of going down to say the 737-800, you were fired (wrong place/wrong time). This is hat its like for managers, and that is why they get severance packages (pay and benefits for short term).