Originally Posted by sailingfun

The AE system would not slow a furlough compared to the monthly system. The company can post a AE every two weeks if they want. In fact in more normal times we saw a 4 major AE each year and normally one cleanup AE after each quarterly bid so there would be a total of 8 per year or near monthly. The AE's have stopped because of the merger and the desire of the company to minimize training. They know a lot of pilots are going to want to switch bases. The company actually tried to get the union to agree to joint system wide bids prior to SOC with conversions to happen only after SOC. This was turned down by the union and the company was forced to abide by the transition agreement. That is why there huge rush to get SOC done. They know they are going to be short pilots this summer and want to get as much training done this winter as possible and then get everyone out of the school house and flying the line in the summer. That is also why many of the planned changes will be put off until the fall.