I am 100% convinced that line of thinking is/was totally incorrect. Here's why:

Yes, on paper, they could open FDAs w/o an LOA. But in practice, there was NO WAY they'd been able to do it successfully. Reasons:

• The FDA bid was a failure on the FO side: You saw how few bid it with the LOA. Imagine without the LOA, even fewer FOs would have bid either domicile, putting the company in an even tougher spot. It would have been very likely that HKG FO would have gone completely unfilled. Paris as well (see next point)

• Tax Equalization: CDG would have had a drastically low turnout on the FO side, and very well may have had captain seats go empty too. Without tax equalization, do you know many pilots that would have bid CDG, willing to pay 40% French income taxes?? Know many new hires that would accept a position at FedEX, knowing they were going to France w/o any housing allowance and having to fork over 40% of their income in taxes? I sure don't.

• Waiver of the 2 hour grand trans: The company would not have had this ability without the LOA. How would they get crews from HKG to CAN in a 4.5 to 5 hour van ride w/o the LOA? An absolutely essential part of the operation that would not have been available w/o the LOA.

• The infamous labor law document: That document they are forcing FDA crews to sign was absolutely essential prior to placing crews in France. Without the LOA, they wouldn't have had that ability either.

It absolutely amazes me that people think the company actually would have been successful in opening these FDAs without the LOA. Sure, they could have tried, but I would LOVE to have seen the bid results of that one....