It's interesting that no one has mentioned a national seniority list for all 121 pilots as a possible solution. If congress is bent on writing major legislation, why not put everyone on a list. The benefits would be huge, and it would significantly stabilize the industry. Pilots could shop airlines for the one with the best business model. You would no longer be tied to one carrier and have to go back to the bottom if your latest management team turned out to be bozos and ran the company into bankruptcy! Pay would already be set through negotiations based on number of seats and which seat you are sitting in. If one airline goes bankrupt, those displaced pilots would automatically get picked up in seniority order at other remaining carriers as soon as there are openings. Start-up airlines would have to pull from a pool of qualified listed pilots and pay them the going rate, not some substandard, joke benefits rate that drags down the other carriers. If a new carrier wants to succeed, they would have to have a better product, not just cheap first and second year new hire employees. Airline managements would actually have to MANAGE THE PRODUCT instead of simply lowering costs on the backs of their employees all the time. They would compete for customers based on service, not on costs. My understanding is that this almost happened back in the deregulation era and was part of the original legislation, but was removed in committee by anti-labor forces.