A forced shut down may help mitigate the extreme losses all airlines are operating at right now. Not having to fly around empty airplanes burning gas and the easement of gate utilization restrictions will at least stem the bleeding. Plus, if we’re all forced to stay home, instead of a percentage of pilots being furloughed and receiving no paycheck, we’d all be out and get our guaranteed pay. I’m sure there’s a break even point but having to only pay 79 hrs to all pilots may help blunt the blow and delay furloughs.

The delayed MAX is looking like a godsend right now! No payments to make and since we’ve slowed our growth in the last two years, we have only minor scheduling cuts to make at the moment.