Going from memory here so while not exact these numbers are pretty close. DAL peaked at a little over 10,000 Pilots on the seniority list in July 2001, about 750-1000 of these were FEs. About 1100 Pilots were then furloughed from November 2001 to January 2003. Furloughs then stopped for 2 months until March 2003 when DAL furloughed about another 250 when the Gulf War started. The arbitrator that was working the Force Majeure issue on the "No Furlough" clause ruled that this second group of 250 furloughs was not justified, and the company had to recall them. Some of these guys actually got paid time off but others did not - I don't know how this was decided.

So the No Furlough clause did have some albeit very limited value after all.

Keep in mind the situation then was much different. Back then we quickly parked all the three crew member aircraft resulting in all flight engineers bumping into Pilot spots causing more furloughs. We were not actively hiring and were very fat on Pilots. Much different situation now.

Scoop