I'm the guy who said that and that statement came directly from a union official (though I won't say who since I don't want to get him in any trouble). It is no conspiracy theory. This guy sees the data file UAL gives our company and works with other union members to build our schedules every month so he would know the truth. I've also flown with the guy and, like me, he is not someone who gets his jollies running around telling lies.

They originally gave C5 8000 block in EWR for August and gave a couple hundred hours of our flying in IAD to AW that made sense given their typical route structure. Then at the last minute Cuomo and Murphy got together and over-reacted to the recent spike in cases in the south and declared "no turn up in EWR". The port authority of NY and NJ (note those states are in the name of the organization) pulled the plug and UAL was forced to delay reopening of EWR. At this point it was too late to change what they gave AW so C5 got what it had in July minus about 200 hours, so we now sit at 2500 hrs for August. This is consistent with a couple captains I know who barely had a line in July losing their lines for August.

Care to make any more uninformed statements?