Former TWA Pilots Lose Arbitration With The Airline

When American Airlines acquired TWA in 2001, part of the deal was a guarantee of a limited number of Captain positions to TWA pilots.

Last week and arbitrator ruled that the protections had expired, and those Captains now are facing demotion to First Officer, with a corresponding pay cut. The decision affects at least 85 former TWA pilots, according to a report from the Dallas Morning News.

The airline and the union representing its pilots, the Allied Pilots Association, have stayed out of the dispute, which pitted two groups of employees against one another. But they will have to work through issues that will arise as a result of the ruling, such as bidding priorities, for the former TWA pilots.

American currently employs about 15,000 pilots. As a result of the decision, some may have to change their base of operations. "Arbitration matters like this are decisions we have to respect. We'll work with (the Allied Pilots Association) to support anyone who is impacted by the decision," said American spokesman Matt Miller.

The agreement set a trigger based on a single TWA pilot ... Magnus Alehult ... who was hired by TWA in 1997. The deal was the agreement would expire when he accumulated enough seniority to be a Captain on any aircraft American flies. That threshold passed in October, but after the merger with US Airways, Alehult only had enough seniority to Captain a smaller regional jet that had been part of the US Airways fleet at the time of the merger.

The former TWA pilots said that the agreement should continue until the initial trigger was reached, regardless of how conditions might have changed since it was made. The rest of the pilot pool disagreed, saying the TWA pilots should be placed in the normal bidding pool.

The arbitrator agreed with the larger number of pilots, saying that "any aircraft" in the expiration clause meant just that, even if that type of aircraft was not part of the American fleet when the deal was struck.

(Image from file)

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