Haha. I'm definitely not a "company guy." I just get facts to form my opinions instead of jumping to conclusions and assuming everything is a conspiracy. While this is far from the best thing that has ever happened to me, I am happy to have a job doing something that I enjoy. Could things be better? Of course! Could things be far worse? Certainly! I'm going to lose a lot of money with this LOA, but I'm glad to know that we are keeping all our pilots employed with benefits. I don't know what next month or even next week will bring. We may not be able to avoid furloughs if the state of our industry during this epidemic continues to get worse. That being said, I'm happy to know that my temporary sacrifice helped to keep a job and health insurance for the families of my fellow pilots that absolutely rely on it. That's not being a "company man," that's being compassionate during a crisis the world has never seen before.

 

So now a 57% cut for May I see in the email from Binns. Oof

 

Get used to it. UA is slashing the schedules

 

it looks like the 57 percent reduction is just a further reduction for April. Nothing in terms of flying for May, however good or bad that may be

 

Oh ya you're right. Double oof...

 

Asking an airline to be proactive - any airline - is a pipe dream.

 

Any guesses on what may flying is going to look like? A 57% reduction in flying for April now doesn’t seem promising.

 

it’s hard to imagine things being any worse than april.

 

My guess is that from mid-April until June at earliest we will probably see next to zero flights for everyone. Legacies, regionals, low cost, etc. There will just be such low demand that theyll keep only as much flying as they have to for currency/maintenance/the law.

A good food for thought item will be how the ramp up will happen when we do punch through this event. As demand comes back, I doubt it will be as fast as the deterioration was. That will be when carriers succeed or die. Can they manage through the slow growth back to normal? The grants and lows might tide them through the worst but idk about the slow recovery.

I *hope* that because of their efficiency with lower load factors that the 50 seat aircraft will work well. But that remains to be seen

 

So I just reread the LOA. Turns out there is furlough protection until May 31st, I was previously under the impression that they would just try their best not to furlough.

I'm aware that this means absolutely nothing if the company goes under, or if the MEC agrees to a change, but it's hard to believe that the company would agree to this unless they had a decent plan to keep the company going. So I think this is actually a very good sign.