Things in the Sky

Well, I guess a strain on management-labor relations as a result of the massive capacity cuts was bound to happen. United is suing the Air Line Pilots Association (hat tip to my dad for pointing out the story), and four specific pilots for organizing an abuse of sick days, causing many flights to be cancelled.

My opinion goes both ways on this one. On one hand, United is making those massive fleet cuts (is it any shock that the majority of the calls are coming from 737 pilots, as PlaneBuzz reports?), and roughly 950 pilots will be losing their jobs. But is not just the pilots that are losing out here – there are plenty of flight attendant and management jobs that are being cut as well.

Also, the pilots are kind of shooting themselves in the foot here (in my opinion) as canceled flights hurt the United brand as a whole. Obviously I know the outgoing pilots don’t care too much about that, but still. When a passenger has his/her flight cancelled, is he/she going not going to be annoying because they feel for the pilots? No, he/she will probably poorly judge United and maybe consider a different airline for the next trip.

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