LOA 19 is part of a Tentative Agreement between Piedmont Airlines and Piedmont ALPA which offers to potentially place the E-175 at Piedmont as part of a comprehensive TA if parent American Airlines Group chooses to at some point in the future. Unanswered is what happens if AAG and Envoy ink a deal in the interim. The MEC has passed the TA to the membership for a ratification vote.

- LOA 19 B.1.b “If EMB-175 aircraft (or other jet aircraft with 60-76 seats) are placed at Piedmont Airlines...”
- LOA 19 Appendix C 1.a. “If, on or after the effective date of this Letter of Agreement, AA makes the final determination, in its sole discretion, to seek to fill new pilot positions...”
- LOA 19 Appendix C 2.a. “AA will permit a Piedmont pilot who has applied for a New Pilot Position to participate in the PFP if, and only if, he/she:”...
- LOA 19 Appendix D 1. a. “Piedmont will maintain a minimum of twenty (20) airframes in revenue service to be operated by pilots on the Piedmont Pilot Seniority List...”
- LOA 19 Appendix D preamble “...provided for the possible placement of EMB-175 aircraft at Piedmont Airlines...” (Fancy way of saying if)
- LOA 19 Appendix D 2.a. “Subject to the labor contingency found in paragraph 2.c., below, a minimum of twenty (20) EMB-175 aircraft will be placed into revenue service at Piedmont Airlines...” (Subject to = if)
- LOA 19 Appendix D 2.c. “The commitments in this paragraph 2 are predicated on meaningful participation in Jet Aircraft Negotiations by other labor groups at Piedmont.” (“Predicated” is the MBA way of saying if flight attendants and mechanics also agree to terms Piedmont will then get E-175s. Maybe.)

If this TA is ratified there may be flow up of 36 a year for an average of 3 per month. The PDT MEC states that, out of approximately 360 pilots, 100 are over 55 years old and may want to finish a career. If all of them elect to stay, leaving 260 pilots to flow up, and if every one of those 260 elect to exercise the right to flow, then the last pilot on property will flow up in 7 years. (Not to mention those who remain will fill every Captain position along the way, thus stagnating the bottom half of the list.) That is the best case. LOA 19 only agrees to a minimum of 20 airframes in total. Manning will decline significantly in any event as the DASH-8 retires. AAG is also placing or has placed E-175s at Compass and Republic.

American (post-merger) will have over 12,000 pilots, of which over 50% will retire in 10 years as published by several sources. Every other major carrier, passenger and cargo alike, will have a similar issue and is currently hiring. Will American hire pilots from the Piedmont pilot hopper when they know they will get those same pilots at some point in the future anyway? Will the other major airlines hire from Piedmont and negate the pilot buffer AAG is building with the flow through agreements? Inquiring minds want to know.
If Envoy negotiates a TA at any time during the delivery of the E-175’s to the AAG property then AAG has no obligation to place those jets at Piedmont.

Envoy deserves a special mention: A recent article in The Street about the impasse at Envoy quoted President Lee Moak at ALPA National as saying the mainline airline industry “has to compete in the marketplace for those same pilots” as the regionals. He goes on to say the mainline carriers are hiring and also “foreign airlines from Asia are coming to the U.S. and running summits and saying ‘come to us, we will move you to Asia and the Middle East,’ and pilots are choosing to go abroad rather than work for wages that are below market.” He stated the problem with the “regional industry is falsely perceived to be a pilot shortage, when in reality it is a pay shortage.”
Equating the two is WRONG. Pay degradation is a CAUSE, a shortage is a RESULT. They are not equivalent. Economists will declare a “shortage” at some time in the future, long after the dust has settled from this or any other TA. The labor market is fluid and responds to the macro environment, which is a far larger issue than can be addressed in a paragraph. The Envoy pilots have rejected a TA that is far superior to what Piedmont is being offered.

"The regional carriers -- Republic, Mesa, Trans States, the wholly-owneds -- all undercut each other in their air service agreements" with mainline carriers, [Moak] said. "They don't have a lot of room in those contracts.” It sounds like management has a problem, and ALPA wants professional pilots at [insert FFD carrier here] to solve it for them. Like a junkie, management is addicted to the low cost FFD. It is the monkey on their back. Flow through agreements are gateway drugs to airline managements, and professional pilots are the candy.
If Piedmont pilots accepts this TA they are enabling the addicts.
If Piedmont pilots ratify this contract a new floor will be set for the FFD segment in order to myopically protect a few with ignorance of the big picture. ALPA negotiates for a large portion of “the market” and is asking Piedmont to ratify an inferior contract that will set a new, lower bar while the major airlines are enjoying record profits. (Projected to be $4 billion at AAG this year)
If Piedmont pilots reject this TA they will continue to answer the question “What is the lowest a company can pay a professional pilot?” It is certainly higher than what is being offered.
If the professional pilots of Piedmont reject this TA they will be joining the ranks of ExpressJet, Republic, and Envoy in telling airline management that the profession has degraded below what is acceptable. It is time to re-think the career path and the value of a skilled professional.
Don’t feed the monkey.