He’s furloughed AA from the early 1990s recession. He talks about it on the podcast when he became NC Chairman. His wife was an AA FA.

FDX hired a lot of furloughed guys from the early 1990s recession. Many from AA/DAL especially, only to have many return to their airlines when recalls started. Supposedly left a bad taste for Pilot Recruitment.

9/11 occurs and the company passed on the furloughed. They had the Scarlet Letter-F=furloughed.

Poor taste to me given the post 9/11 environment and that our System Chief Pilot at the time was an Eastern refugee and there was a large group of Eastern refugees at FDX. (I’ve flown with a lot of ex-Eastern, Non-Scabs-and they are/were great guys).

From my understanding, The System Chief Pilot got a call from the USAir System Chief Pilot who pleaded with him to take the furloughed USAir guys as they weren’t coming back. For those who are too young too know, USAir furloughed back to the USAir/Piedmont guys, I believe around 2,000 from the bottom. I’ve flown with guys here who were part of that and had DOH of 1988/1989. USAir had started to hire again in the late 1990s/early 2000s like most of the Legacy carriers at the time. All of the ex-USAir guys are great too honestly.

I was hired after the big wave of the furloughed guys started to come in 2004 from USAir. Fortunately, the company saw the error in their ways and embraced the furloughed. My class was a mix of AA/UAL/NWA guys. I am a Regional/LCC guy and always appreciate flying with the furloughed guys from 9/11, as I say, by and large, great guys/girls.

God speed to all those affected by the monumental events today. 24 years-Never Forget, I never will.