Southwest and Airtran pilots have reached a tentative agreement on integrating seniority lists and a transition plan for doing so.  The sigh you just heard was Gary Kelly and team relaxing just a hair because this was the test for smoothness in this merger.   Conventional wisdom has it that a merger integration goes smoothly if the pilots manage to agree without too much rancor.

Southwest needed this.  It’s not just an indicator but a leader and most other labor unions will likely fall into agreement fairly rapidly if they see the first one worked out fairly and relatively quickly.  This was pretty quick for any airline merger. 

The details aren’t known yet and that is the real test.  Pilots’ unions are funny groups and have, by far, the most to lose in these deals.  They’re quick to disagree with their boards if they think they’re not getting handled fairly and splinter groups have been known to torpedo agreements. 

On the surface, it would appear to be a no brainer since Airtran pilots would start earning the exceptionally generous SWA salaries.  But seniority is *everything* in these deals and a generous salary doesn’t mean as much if an Airtran captain has to go back to being a first officer and has no chance for upgrade for years.  On the other hand, no SWA pilot is going to be happy if he sees his upgrade to captain opportunities suddenly diminish significantly because a whole bunch of another companies’ pilots just got put in front of him.

My guess?  Captains will stay captains and first officers will remain first officer and the blend will be based on some formula that takes into consideration just how long that pilot has been in his current seat.  The company probably made some guarantees on no outsourced flying and some growth (contingent upon the airline industry health).  To a pilot, growth means opportunity and job security.

It didn’t hurt that SWA made it clear over the past several days that there would be no layoffs as a result of the merger and given their record on layoffs, there was a lot of credibility behind that statement.

I felt that this would probably go pretty well if SWA pilots managed to not appear to be too grabby and I didn’t expect them to.  However, the real trouble area I think may exist is among flight attendants.   SWA flight attendants earn well and have a great deal of flexibility.  In addition, they have a very senior core that is, by definition, far senior to the typical Airtran flight attendant.  An equitable agreement based on seniority is going to put a lot of Airtran FA’s down at the bottom. 

Given that flight attendants earn less than, say, pilots, their basing opportunities are very important to them as its defines lifestyle.  What happens if a great deal of SWA flight attendants can displace Airtran FA’s in Atlanta?

While I doubt that pilots are “fencing off” bases (although its possible), I wouldn’t be surprised to see the FA’s fence off certain bases (at least in Airtran focus cities) for Airtran FA’s only. 

This is good news for everyone and it will be very interesting to see the flight attendant agreement get done.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax