I'm not sure that furloughing people would actually help senior pilots in the long run. Depending on how the industry recovers, being exceptionally short on pilots because they were furloughed may hurt the airline massively on the back end. The 60 day LOA allows time for longer term planning and negotiating.

In the end, TSA went out of business because it didn't have enough pilots. If we furlough pilots now instead of taking a temporary pay reduction, the company *and* the pilots may end up in trouble during the recovery.