Southwest Airlines pilots to earn 50% pay raise as part of new contract agreement
DALLAS - Details of the tentative contract agreement between Southwest Airlines and its pilots have been revealed.
A tentative agreement has been reached with the Dallas-based carrier and its pilots' association made up of 11,000 members.
It's been three years since the end of their last contract, and their new deal is similar to other major airlines.
The union calls it a $12 billion deal.
The agreement comes after the union members voted back in May to authorize a strike, and they had been picketing on occasion to draw attention to the labor dispute.
"Our pilots voted 99 percent plus to authorize a strike," said Tom Nekouei with the Southwest Pilot’s Association. "And that’s something that we said from day one when we took that strike vote. That’s something that we definitely wanted to avoid."
Pilots will earn a 50% pay increase by the end of the five-year contract. That includes an immediate 29% increase.
Money was not the only hot-button issue.
"The membership really wanted one of the core pillars of this contract to be improvements in scheduling," Nekouei said.
Scheduling issues were a significant blame for the Southwest Airlines meltdown last winter. 17,000 flights were cancelled, and two million travelers were stranded over the holidays.
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"It’s interesting that a year later, the pilots are very worried about another meltdown," Nekouei said. "Is there going to be another Christmas or holiday meltdown?"
Southwest Airlines says the agreement gives "industry-leading pay rates and numerous quality-of-life enhancements while also providing opportunities for operational efficiencies."
"The pilots clearly had the upper hand, but this was a deal that Southwest had to make. The bad news for Southwest is that they’re going to be spending a lot more money on labor," said SMU economics professor Mike Davis. "The good news for Southwest is that they have a contract [through] 2028. And the even better news is that they really don’t have a cost disadvantage relative to their competitors. All the airlines are paying pilots much more. I suspect that this is going to make flying more expensive. Although, if fuel prices remain relatively low, it might not be that bad."