Viperstick,

Nobody knows what demand looks like for fall 2021, so both sides of the argument are a gamble. As far as I understand your train of thought, you are essentially calling Kirby‘s bluff on the 3900 number, because of the effect it would have on TK‘s ability to train. so in that scenario, perhaps seniority numbers 2850 to maybe 4500 from the bottom keep their full pay for another five months until their training center (seniority) equivalents can be furloughed.

I think this is one of the more interesting reasons to have voted no, however when I went down this rabbit hole, I think it would require a lot of cash burn for the months it took to train replacements… And would still result in the displacement of thousands of mid and upper tier pilots. If Scott Kirby had more years at the helm, I think perhaps he would have more leeway to gamble with staffing. As it is, I personally don’t think he would’ve had an option if he wanted to remain CEO, other than to right-size our staffing pretty quickly. Demand has been far more sluggish than anyone really predicted, so I personally do not think 3900 furloughs would’ve been enough… so more jobs would certainly have been on the table. As has been stated, TK‘s ability to train it’s really not as much of a bottleneck, when your block hours Are still hovering in the 30% of normal range.

I think you are right that we absolutely solve a problem for SK that does not benefit us… But I believe that the ability to get the company thinking more long-term again, will almost certainly decrease total furlough numbers and help us all avoid becoming UAL circa 2010. A lot of people closer to the center of this argument have stated that there are some glaring problems with the TA, I think you were absolutely right that the training issue was one of them…