I want to take a moment to clarify a couple of things. The first is that I’m not trying to broach this topic for the current round of negotiations. I’m just trying to understand its place in our system historically. I do think it might make sense to address going forward in the next round.

Secondly, I think there has been a bit of false dichotomy regarding the costs and trade offs. When applied to our lines, a continuous TAFB system can be more than a “few shekels”. And it doesn’t apply to per diem alone.

If you go take a look at the April 2026 lines, there is a pure RDU day flying line on the 76. The week is made of front and back end DH’s. There is one week that doesn’t have a BEDH. Total TAFB currently is 322:31. Currently, it pays 94:57. If you didn’t break up the TAFB, it would be 385:42. That would credit 102.85. That’s 7.9 hours for the month. Not including per diem.

The line has 19 days on in a 35 day bid period. The current book comes out with an average daily credit of 5 hours. Compare that with the continuous TAFB pairings and the average credit goes to just over 5.35. That’s competitive with the industry which has an average daily guarantee credit of 5.25 hours.

Lastly, I think there’s a misconception of the tradeoffs. You don’t lose any flexibility regarding swapping schedules. Swapping out legs departing a base and returning to base has been going on in the industry with continuous TAFB pairings for pilots for more than a decade. Mentioned earlier, jetway trades are proffered on a trade board just like they are today. You just select which legs you want to swap or drop and the trade board does its thing. There is no trading shekels for flexibility.

As a matter of fact, it can enhance flexibility as some carriers can let you drop the last leg to base if you can find a pilot that will take the trip from an outstation back to base. That could make commuting to base much easier if you can operate in to work.

Again, just trying to have an honest discussion and see if there’s room for improvement.