Furloughed Pilots Refusing Recall?

Mon, 17 Jul '06
Many Saying It Just Isn't Worth It

As the airlines slowly recover from those terrible days following 9/11... they're starting to recall flight crews. As many as 8,000 were furloughed as the economic disaster that befell this industry unfolded. But now that some of them are being asked to return to work... many are saying, in essence, "Hell no, we won't go."

Pilots at Delta Air Lines report only one pilot has agreed to return for every three pilots asked back. Other airlines, such as American, US Airways and Northwest say that ratio is more like five-to-one.

What's keeping those pilots away? Well, for one, many of the pilots furloughed in 2001 have since gotten jobs in other industries... and as much as they may love to fly, it makes little sense for them to give up those jobs over the prospect of working longer hours, and for less money, to help keep finacially shaky airlines afloat.

Others say they don't want to be away from home as much as 22 days a month... up from the 15 or 16 that was the standard just a few years ago.

As other airlines contemplate recalls, Air Line Pilots Association President Duane Woerth tells the Washington Post those carriers have to face pilots who are very aware of the precarious nature of the business... and who watch the news like anyone else.

"Every single time there is some international incident, oil jumps five bucks a barrel," said Woerth. "The pilot thinks: 'I just relocated my family once, and I'm going to have to relocate them again, and some unknown event will happen. Some airline will panic and furlough me again.' They just don't want to get caught in that whipsaw."

Could this lead to a shortage of qualified flight crews? Wouldn't that be ironic...

Most of the furloughed pilots have gotten more stable and better paying jobs since being furloughed by the airlines. Flying after a while just becomes another job. Most of these pilots have more than 1,500 hours in an airplane. After a while, commercial flying especially, it just becomes a routine. It's the same thing and same procedures several times a day, several times a week. Although I'm sure it's fun to fly those tricky approaches or tough approaches in bad weather, those cases are probably few and far between, especially since most of the time you're either not going to fly into bad weather or if you do the autopilot is engaged for most of the approach.

Once your middle aged, with a family, would you rather spend days away from home, working weird hours, getting a messed up sleep schedule, doing the same thing over and over again, or work a 9-5 and be home with your family every night while maybe making just the same, if not more, money than you would flying at an airline? I'm not sure if I would...

My Liason Officer (a Major in the AF reserves and ex-C5 driver) was working for AA flying 767s transcon (JFK-LAX) and eventually ended up taking a "Leave of Absence" because he knew either he was going to get downgraded or furloughed. In his absence, he started his own company, and started making some good money. Although he really loved flying, it just wasn't worth it for him, especially with a family, to be gone for several days, and be home at weird times/hours.

On the other side, my Statistics teacher last semester (a "re-activated" Lt. Col. ex-A10 pilot) was flying 747s for UAL and decided to do the same - take a leave of absence - to go back active duty and teach at the Academy, and also finish out his 20. He loved how he was home everyday with his family, but he really loved flying commercially. He just recently went back to UAL and is now flying 747s on the SFO-Asia routes, commuting between DEN and SFO before and after the flights.

For everyone it's different, but you can't blame the pilots, especially the regional pilots, or the 737, 757, M80, A319 etc... guys for not wanting to go back.

Plus, there's always GA flying for these guys, where they can actually have a lot more fun flying!