Oh, dear. I've been outed again.
First, SWAPA is not ALPA. When I started my aviation career, there were several carriers for which I would never have considered working. SWA was one. From the beginning SWA pilots undercut ALPA by accepting work rules to which no legacy pilot would ever have agreed. They also giddily stole market share during the 2000s by working even harder at a time when the legacies were on their backs. SWAPA pilots have no loyalty to any union other than their own. Yes, SWA pilots are paid well, but they happily work like dogs to earn that pay.
To wit, my second point. Most of the employees at Boeing are union members. How about SWAPA shows them some unity in this difficult time as our MEC Chair has done from the beginning?
Third, in the history of commercial airline manufacturing there are numerous examples of planes that had initial problems. Right off the bat, I remember the story of the de Havilland Comet. The first ever commercial jetliner, and tragically it had a flaw that caused it to break up in flight. If the customers of airplane manufacturers sued every time a plane was delivered with a flaw there would be no commercial airplane manufacturers left.
Lastly, it's whether not weather.
Joe Peck
EWRFO
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming . . .
With our Dear Leader having made nice with the Chinese this weekend, I wonder if that will keep the economic juggernaut rolling right along for another couple years. I am truly and happily amazed out how quickly WB seniority in both seats is dropping. Only a few months back I was thinking it would be 5 or 6 years before I could hold 777 cap in EWR and now it looks like it could happen in 2021. Holy rapid movement Batman!!