I know where you're going with that. And I KNOW you see/read the same stuff I do.

"We staff on block hours, NOT airframes".

But it sure is some coincidence that when we had 274 planes, we also had that about 2700 pilots, PLUS the usual 10ish% for training, management, etc. In other words, about 10 bodies per airframe, just like most other "regional" carriers.

And now we're down to 240ish airframes, we're also down to about 2400 pilots, plus the usual 10%.

I know it's apples to oranges because Southwest does longer stage lengths that we do, but we engage in pretty much the SAME type of operation they do. Flying concentrated for the most part to the U.S. Yeah, we go to Mexico/Canada, but those are nothing but 1-3.5 hour stage lengths that happen to leave/return the U.S. and have ZERO effect on how we staff. Unlike true "international" operations.

According to APC, Southwest is operating 529 airframes, with 5900 pilots.

I don't think more efficient crew utilization would result in more furloughs. It would simply mean that it wouldn't take 12+ hours of duty with 5-6 hours of sit time to get paid for 5.5 for 6. I'd gladly take the 5.5 hours of pay for ONLY 8-10 hours of duty and longer, more restful overntights. I don't know about you, but if I'm gonna sit, I'd rather sit in the hotel, NOT the airport/crewroom.