The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association union has reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year labour contract with Southwest Airlines and will be voted on by nearly 11,000 of the airline’s pilots.
The union reports the contract to be worth $12 billion and pilots would see a pay rise of 50% by the end of the five-year contract. It had been three years since the end of the pilots’ last contract and had begun negotiations since. The agreement came after union members voted to authorise a strike in May 2023.
“Our pilots voted 99 percent to authorise a strike,” said Tom Nekouei with the Southwest Airlines 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.”
“Our pilots are exemplary aviators, and this agreement would give them industry-leading pay rates, and numerous quality-of-life enhancements, while also providing opportunities for operational efficiencies,” said Southwest Airlines vice president labor relations Adam Carlisle.
Scheduling issues were a significant blame for the airline’s winter meltdown in 2022, which saw the over 17,000 flights cancelled and two million travellers stranded. The airline agreed to a $140 million civil penalty over the meltdown in December 18, 2023.
"The membership really wanted one of the core pillars of this contract to be improvements in scheduling," Nekouei said.
According to The New York Times, the union members will reportedly have until January 22 to vote on the tentative agreement.