Are former military pilots subject to recall
#21
In order to receive those contacts, you must be part of the CRAF. It is the benny for the airlines to agree to be recalled.
The normal operation of an airline will be affected depending on what level of CRAF is activated. The airlines can't renege on that.
What would the airlines be flying? Lucrative DOD contracts or normal ops?
The normal operation of an airline will be affected depending on what level of CRAF is activated. The airlines can't renege on that.
What would the airlines be flying? Lucrative DOD contracts or normal ops?
I'll preface all this by saying I'm not an expert, but did do some research on this a few years ago.
CRAF is all volunteer for the pilots. What if bad guys start targeting civilian aircraft that are flying CRAF flights? Couple of aircraft get shot down, what then happens to the volunteer rate for both the companies and the pilots? During my research for my thesis on this subject, I found out that one of the airlines does not have insurance protecting their aircrew if something war-related were to happen on a CRAF flight.
Also, back when some of these incentives were written, there was a lot more market capacity. You mentioned lucrative contracts. With less capacity and higher competition on very lucrative routes (NY to LHR), a major carrier would be hesitant to pull a widebody off a lucrative route to fly to Al Udeid AB. The US gov't will not pay the same as all those first and business class customers. And to add to it, once an airline removes that aircraft from that particular route, they will have to "Rob Peter to pay Paul" by pulling another aircraft from a different route to cover the higher profit route, thus starting a cycle.
Obviously, the current incentives are enough to attract participation. (city pairs, using military fields for alternate airport options to save fuel, etc.). We've ony gone Stage 2 twice in the CRAF history. Stage 3, a full nationalization, has never occurred. Probably a WW3 level event will be that trigger. Anyway, if we were to go Stage 2, it will cause a lot of pain.
Bottom line is that the US military does not have enough organic lift to fly all the personnel for a mass mobilization, hence the need for the CRAF.
#22
All true, except, civil traffic declines steeply during imminent hostilities, freeing up lift. Desert Storm saw airlines more than willing to supply lift. American freed up some B777s for the Iraq buildup, too.
GF
GF
#23
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2006
Position: 737 FO/Capt/FO
Posts: 426
Sounds like the time my female DO came into the pilot section asking for help in choosing a drop zone vehicle. Fellow pilot says "Ma'am how about a hummer..."
The entire room lost it!
Last edited by UAL T38 Phlyer; 05-25-2017 at 12:03 PM. Reason: TOU in quote
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post