Flight Training - November/December 2020 - 55

ADVANCED PILOT CAREER PILOT

FINALLY!
A CARD
FOR PILOTS.

FLOWING BACKWARD
OF FURLOUGHS, DISPLACEMENTS, AND PAYCUTS
BY PETER A. BEDELL

Cash Back1 Select
AOPA Purchases
CASH BACK1 APPLIED AS STATEMENT CREDIT.

ISTOCK

AS OF OCTOBER 1, THE GOVERNMENT

bailouts for U.S. airlines decimated by the
coronavirus pandemic were set to expire.
Airlines that took the loans agreed to keep
all employees on the property until that
date. Without any assured end to the pandemic and airlines still bleeding millions
of dollars a day ﬂying fractions of their
schedules, the time has come to furlough
employees.
In the seniority-based system of the
airlines, that means that the last ones
hired are the ﬁrst to be laid off. In simplistic terms, if your airline has 10,000
pilots and plans to be only two-thirds of
its pre-COVID size on the far side of this
pandemic, then you can expect that about
3,300 pilots will have to be furloughed.
Being laid off means that if and when the
demand comes back and the company
needs pilots, your job will be waiting-if
you want it. I've met some pilots who have
gone through multiple furloughs. Some
are fed up and never come back to the
airline cockpit. I can't blame them. Furloughs can completely upend your life.

As always, seniority is everything
("Career Pilot: Seniority is Everything,"
April 2018 Flight Training) in the airline
business. Like a stack of Tetris blocks,
many pilots slide down in responsibility
and pay. For those at the top of the heap,
the change to their life is minimal. They'll
still get their good schedules, keep vacations, and maintain their seat status-most
likely captain. Those in the middle of
the list, perhaps junior captains, will be
displaced back into the ﬁrst officer seat to
ﬁll in for those who were furloughed from
the bottom of the list. At my airline, the
pay cut going from captain to ﬁrst officer
is about 40 percent.
Personally, I've been lucky to never
have been furloughed during 20 years in
the airline business; ﬁve of those years
were spent at a regional carrier that
I escaped before it failed. I have been
forced from captain to ﬁrst officer twice,
however. While the pay cut will sting, I'm
thankful to still have a job.
I didn't ﬂy from May to mid-August
this year but thanks to the bailout, I was
AOPA.ORG/FT

Switch today to the
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and stop paying too
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aviation purchases.

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to learn more

*Certain points and purchases restrictions apply, see full Rewards
Terms and Conditions for full details at AOPA.org/creditcard.
1 Rewards points can be redeemed for Cash Back or other items provided through AOPA Pilot Rewards. A Cash Back redemption is applied
as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance
but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. A
minimum of 2,500 points is needed to redeem for Cash Back. Values
for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards,
and travel may vary.

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Flight Training - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - November/December 2020