Ask the pilot

Furlough: The worst cockpit terror of them all! What if it happens to you?

By Patrick Smith

Read more: Technology & Business, Business, P. Smith, Ask the Pilot

May 26, 2006 | In a column last July I proposed that the Clash's "Career Opportunities" and the Jam's "Smithers-Jones" are the two greatest songs ever written about unemployment. The former, from the Clash's eponymous debut in 1977, is a raucous tear-down of the economic malaise in late-'70s Britain. It was later reworked to sweet hilarity on the "Sandinista" album, where it's sung by a chorus of young boys over a tinkling keyboard. The latter, written by the Jam's Bruce Foxton (not Paul Weller as many people assume), tells the story of a British workingman who arrives for work one morning, optimistic and "spot on time," only to be summoned into the office and summarily handed his walking papers.

"I've some news to tell you,
there's no longer a position for you 
sorry Smithers-Jones."

The song implodes around the word "Jones," in a crash of orchestral beauty. It's quite nice. And it also gives me the willies, because I know the feeling. Technically, from a pilot's point of view, I can say that "Smithers-Jones" is the best song ever about getting furloughed.

"Furlough" is a term that appears now and again in this column. Perhaps not everyone understands. In aviation parlance, furlough has a very specific definition. It means losing your job, for an indeterminate length of time, through no fault of your own. Whatever you call it -- being laid off, made redundant, placed on involuntary leave -- it's an unwelcome and entirely common phenomenon. In the rickety profit-loss roller coaster that is the airline industry, furloughs come and go in great waves, displacing thousands -- sometimes tens of thousands -- of workers at a time.

When it happens, a portion of an airline's pilot seniority roster, which is to say everybody at the bottom, as determined by date of hire, is lopped away. If cutbacks determine that 500 fliers have to go, the 501st man (or woman) hired now becomes the company's most junior -- and most nervous -- crew member. Some pilots are fortunate, getting on at just the right time and sliding through a long, uneventful tenure. But it's not the least bit unusual to meet pilots whose résumés are scarred by three or more furloughs, some lasting several years.

Furloughees remain nominal employees, presumably to be summoned back when conditions improve or attrition warrants their return. When and if that day comes, assuming the airline that cut you loose stays in business, you're brought back to the fold in strict seniority order -- the first pilot out is the last pilot back. How long can it take? The last heavy-duty furlough cycle, dovetailing nicely with our last economic recession, stretched from the late 1980s into mid-1990s. During that period, some USAir/US Airways pilots waited over eight years for recall.

Following the announcement of cuts, pilots are usually given notice of at least 30 days, but at smaller nonunion airlines it can be literally 30 minutes. Bargaining agreements stipulate the details, such as length of remaining benefits or severance pay, if any. For probationary employees at the bigger airlines, a month's wages are a typical parting gift. Unions such as the Air Line Pilots Association often arrange for healthcare options and help crews find positions at other carriers.

In 2006, with the airlines in such a wild state of flux, it's difficult to calculate exactly how many airline pilots are currently on furlough. According to AIR Inc., an aviation employment resource company, the number was 10,390 at the end of 2005, down from even higher totals in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001. The industry's ongoing woes no longer have much to do with the 2001 attacks, but the red ink and pink slips haven't disappeared.

"Our latest membership inventory shows 4,625 pilots on furlough status out of 61,100 total," says ALPA spokesman John Mazor, whose organization represents crew members at four of the nation's five largest carriers. "About a year ago, a separate tally showed net furloughs since Sept. 11 running over 7,000, or about 11 percent of our membership." A decline in furlough percentages isn't all good news. Many pilots have left the occupation entirely, or have settled for lower-paying jobs with the regional airlines.

Pilots aren't the only ones affected. Flight attendants too suffer regular furlough cycles, and airline staffing as a whole is down 70,000 workers from 2001 levels. "But if you're looking at the overall effects of the economic tsunami on pilots," adds Mazor, "don't forget the downgrading. Those who keep their jobs often get bumped down, so even those who manage to hang on find themselves in considerably diminished circumstances."

The domino effect within the ranks brings on serious training and staffing disruptions, which is why furloughs aren't always implemented even when a carrier is struggling. Captains become first officers; wide-body crews are kicked to domestic short-haul; the simulators fill up and instructors work overtime.

As regulars to Ask the Pilot already know, should a furloughed pilot take another airline job, there is no sideways transfer of experience or salary. Your original position and pay are meaningless. You become a probationary first officer making probationary wages -- anywhere from around $15,000 to $30,000, with very few exceptions. And you might be asked to resign your existing seniority, formally severing ties with airline A in order to convince airline B that you're worth the training investment. Alternatively, you can be expected to sign a contract stipulating your repayment of training costs. A pilot, even one in difficult financial straits (or bored out of his or her mind), needs to think very carefully before relinquishing a position that took years to achieve.

As it happens, for all the bad news coming from the largest carriers, cockpit hiring in general is currently very strong. AIR Inc. predicts that 10,500 positions will be available this year alone. The thing is, a majority of these positions will be at regional carriers, and will fall at the low end of that salary range listed above. Many furloughed pilots refuse to accept a job flying a turboprop or a regional jet for $17,000 -- not out of pride, but out of necessity. And even if he or she wants one, it's often the young, fresh-faced kid, hungry for opportunity and destined to stick around longer, who'll get the nod before some disgruntled refugee from United or Northwest. Experience, in this case, can work against the veteran flier.

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