Originally Posted by Ripper

This is an intriguing suggestion. I’ve given it a great deal of thought and find it to be potentially more palatable than many other suggestions. In this scenario we would preserve our furloughed brethren, preserve our hard-fought contract, build unity among our pilot group, and, best of all, keep our fate out of company hands. Plus, it would provide our NC with walk-away power at the negotiating table.

I’ve done some very basic math assuming what I consider to be the worst case scenario wherein 1750 pilots are furloughed. As of January 1st 2021, 27 of those pilots will be on year 1 pay, 373 will be on year 2 pay, 716 on year 3 pay and 634 will be on year 4 pay.

All told, paying each of those pilots 88 TFP per month would cost each non-furloughed pilot $2,560 a month. That would be almost 22% of a year 4 FO’s TFP guarantee, but only 12% of a topped-out captain’s guarantee. Somewhere in there is a percentage that, if given by each active pilot, would mitigate the furlough entirely.

The percentages mentioned above are based solely on TFP guarantee; flying over guarantee, per diem and NEC are not included. I also didn’t consider the folks out on ExTO, who have given so much, but would also take a hit if pay rates dropped. Nor did I consider their phased return based on which of the six ExTO durations they selected.

I have no doubt SWAPA could do the math fairly easily to contrive an actual percentage of TFP income each non-ExTO pilot would have to contribute to make this work.

The number would obviously depend greatly on the number of furloughed pilots, which I believe will be less than 1,750.

Despite being a really heavy financial hit, this option could possibly appeal to the membership, especially since it comes with no FM clause.