If there are furloughs, and I’m pretty skeptical, they have to recall everyone from ExTO. Then furlough according to the contract. That’s a big cost right there because in less than 10 days every who took ExTO is de-qualified and needs to hit the sim for 3 takeoffs and landings. Some who will be furloughed will not have to re-qualify but many would have to head to Dallas, at company expense.

I hope I’m not wrong. But I don’t think it will come to furloughs. As mentioned earlier in this and other threads, there are many reasons to avoid it. Additionally there is a non-trivial amount of natural attrition each month due to retirements.

That said, I think we’re in for a tough winter.

I’ve been out for 3 months. How are loads? I’ll be curious about load factors after December 1 when they are selling to full capacity again.

The last time I was at an airline that furloughed, around 2008, everyone was back sooner than expected and not long after that they couldn’t fill classes fast enough.