Delta Says It Can Avoid Furloughs If Pilots Agree to Pay Cuts

With Oct. 1 looming – the first date that airlines can furlough or terminate workers as part of accepting government grants and loans back in March – Delta Air Lines believes it can avoid job losses for a year if pilots agree to cut their guaranteed minimum pay.

The Atlanta-based carrier is seeking a 15 percent reduction, according to CNBC.

Delta has more than 14,000 pilots on the payroll, and approximately 2,500 are at risk of being laid off. The pilots had until today, Sunday, July 19, to accept early retirement or buyouts.

CNBC was privy to an internal memo from John Laughter, Delta’s senior vice president of flight operations, who wrote that “Our approach is to spread the work of a smaller airline among all our pilots to preserve all jobs – that would be unheard of in our history. But we cannot do it only with voluntary options such as [voluntary early out programs] and paid leaves. This has been shown at our competitors with WARN notices being issued even with paid leaves being offered.”

Unfortunately, this is also a tacit admission by Delta that it does not expect a turnaround in the demand for flights any time soon. Airlines rarely resort to mass layoffs of pilots because they then risk a shortfall if business turns around.

Delta said earlier this week it believed it had enough employees who accepted early buyouts to avoid layoffs, but apparently not enough pilots to do the same.

Expect the pay cut proposal to be contentious, however.

Air Line Pilots Association spokesman Christopher Riggins said the union is “not in a position to even consider” Delta’s proposal, and said the airline should first be offering partially paid leaves of absence to pilots. “Every other airline in the United States has been using voluntary, partially paid leaves. Unfortunately, when the Company chooses to negotiate in public directly with our pilots, it is discouraging as it impedes the process,” he said in a statement.

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