The SWAPA Number

The Company's COVID policies are always changing, so today we're bringing you a quick update with the latest from VP Mike Santoro. If you have any feedback for us at all, please drop us a line at comm@swapa.org or tap here to send us a text. Follow us online: Twitter - https://twitter.com/swapapilots Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/swapa737

Today’s SWAPA Number is 12/8. That’s the date that the federal government expects all Southwest employees to be vaccinated. SWAPA has been engaged with Southwest on this issue for months now, but the pace of things has picked up dramatically in the last week.   So today on the show, we’re going to talk to SWAPA President Casey Murray and Vice President Mike Santoro who will help us catch up on all...

Today’s SWAPA Number is $25.5 million. That’s the total expenses of the 2022 budget which will be  voted on by the membership in October’s Fall General Election. Today we’re going to talk to SWAPA 2nd Vice President, Tom Nekouei and Director of Finance Brian Hickman. They are going to talk us through  how the final number was achieved, what changes have been enacted this year, and what the  member...

Today’s SWAPA number is $28 million. That’s the amount of money Pilots pay into the SWAPA offered STD and LTD plans per year.  With SWAPA Benefits Open Enrollment quickly approaching, we are going to talk to Benefits Chair Brent Weisner and the NC’s benefits expert Damian Jennette about all of the SWAPA-provided Benefits plans, how to pick the option that’s best for you, and what the expectation i...

Today’s SWAPA number is 1,000. That’s the number of Pilots who stood shoulder to shoulder at the Dallas picket on August 24, 2016, what ended up being the largest single-site Pilot picket in history. On today’s show we talk to SPC Chair Chad Korb and SPC member (and current BWI rep) Daren Black about that time in history, what the SPC has been doing over the last few years, and what they are doing...

In this episode, President Casey Murray and Vice President Mike Santoro talk about SWAPA’s efforts to engage the Company on supporting our Pilots during the most disruptive summer in our airline’s history. If you have any feedback for us at all, please drop us a line at comm@swapa.org or tap here to send us a text. Follow us online: Twitter - https://twitter.com/swapapilots Facebook - https://www....

Today’s SWAPA Number is 161. That's the average number of pilots per day, that were JA’d to work on a day off in the month of August, so far. We've seen JA records shattered this year. The most open time JA’s, the most unscheduled overnights, or what we call RON JA’s, the highest fatigue rates, the highest sustained reassignment rates and the most food and hotel availability problems eve...

Today’s SWAPA number is 40 That’s about the average number of comm pieces SWAPA distributes to our members, the media, and other outside audiences on a monthly basis. SWAPA SMEs produce a huge amount of information and it’s our Communications Team’s job to turn it from a rough draft into a polished product, usually with very short deadlines. On our 50th episode a while back, Kurt Heidemann and Amy...

Today’s SWAPA number is 23.7%. That’s the number of Pilots who got their preferred training week in 2018, our baseline year for Contract 2020. You don’t need a math degree to realize that it’s worse than if the schedule were picked randomly out of a hat. Lack of adherence to training preferences are just one problem we hear about from our pilots every month. When I’m talking to guys outside of SWA...

Today’s SWAPA Number is 4. That’s the number of sections of Contract 2020 that SWAPA has dedicated to scheduling and work rules. That tells you how important scheduling is to our pilots because it directly impacts our productivity, pay, and quality of life.  Since Section 6 negotiations resumed in the spring, SWAPA has painstakingly walked through our scheduling proposals line by line with Labor R...

Today’s SWAPA number is 50. That’s the amount of SWAPA Number podcasts we’ve produced for our pilots since we started in August of 2019. We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback about them because they let us talk directly with our SMEs about subjects in an easy-to-follow format. So today on the show we’re going to celebrate that milestone by turning our mics around and interviewing our long-time host...

Today's SWAPA Number is 68.8. That's the number of ASAP reports filed by Southwest pilots per 10,000 flights in 2019.  In this episode, we're going to talk with SWAPA Safety chair, Gary Niemann, and vice-chair Matthew Cain about the programs their committee oversees and the work they're doing to mitigate risk. They're also going to give you some advice on what to do if ATC...

Today’s SWAPA number is 2013. That was the last year SWAPA’s Internal Audit Committee made a formal report to our board of directors. As a member-driven organization, SWAPA owes it to our pilots to make sure that our policies and as well as compliance with those policies is beyond reproach.  Casey Murray ran for office with transparency and fiduciary responsibility as two of his key tenets. With t...

Today’s SWAPA number is 24 million. That’s the amount of money SWA will contribute to employee PS for Q1. It’s one of the first signs we’re recovering from the worst of the pandemic. With Q1 earnings last month and the annual shareholder meeting this month, we thought it would be a good time to talk to EFA Chair Erich Schnitzler about recent financials, what’s going on in the industry, and to give...

Today’s SWAPA number is 815. That’s the number of hits our current website gets on a daily basis. While that may seem like a lot, in reality that’s far fewer than what we’d like to see.  In an effort to give the membership a better experience and provide some more searchability, SWAPA has been working for many months on a redesign of the site. So on today’s episode we are going to talk to two staf...

Today’s SWAPA number is 112. That’s the number of days our SWAPA President Casey Murray has held office. In that brief period, our Association has had to handle WARN Notices, the pandemic and vaccines, the MAX return to service, early ExTO recalls, and the return to Contract 2020 negotiations. To say it’s been a busy time would an understatement. So today on the show, we’re going to talk to Case a...

Today's SWAPA Number Is 71. That's the percentage of traffic to swapa.org that are SRC items. The depth and breadth of articles, blogs, phone calls, and educational pieces that the SRC puts out is just incredible. SRC authored six of the 13 SEP cycles during the buildup to Contract 2020. Scheduling was and is front and center throughout the process. And that's because a large part o...

Today’s SWAPA Number is 196. That’s the size of the Southwest’s newest ETOPs bid group in Las Vegas.  The timing and method of the announcement is causing our pilots to ask a lot of questions, so today on this special edition of the podcast, we’re talking with SRC Chair Scott Plyler and Scheduling Analyst Cara Monahan who will try to fill in some of the blanks in the Company’s recent announcement...

Today’s SWAPA Number is 38. That’s the number of surveys and polls SWAPA ran during the SEP process during preparations for Contract 2020 alone. Our Association doesn’t make all of our decisions based only on polling results, but they serve as an important source of data when it comes to SWAPA’s Strength in Numbers. SWAPA doesn’t have any polls coming soon that we know of, but when we conduct one,...

Today’s SWAPA Number is 40. That’s the number of full-time staff members SWAPA employs to serve our membership. When our Pilots think about SWAPA, they think about reps, execs, and committee Pilots doing the work, but there are dozens of non-Pilot staffers putting in long hours for our membership as well. So today on the show, we’re going to talk with SWAPA Executive Director Matt Redding. He’s go...

Today’s SWAPA Number is 19%. That’s the percentage of SWAPA pilots that contribute to the SWAPA PAC. Compare that to American Airlines pilots who contribute almost twice as much money per month and you can see we have some ground to make up. Worse than that though, take a look at NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, a one quarter our size with the same total PAC contributions. Politics i...

Today’s SWAPA Number is 3 billion. That’s Southwest Airlines’ net cash position today. Despite the unprecedented damage the pandemic has done to our economy and industry, our airline still has more cash on hand than we have debt. We are fortunate to work for an extraordinarily strong company.  Last week, the Company announced fourth quarter and full year earnings, so today on the show, we’re going...

Today’s SWAPA number is 4. That is the number of new BOD members elected for 2021. On the show today, we talked to each of them about their background, what drove them to run for office, and what they hope to accomplish in their time on the BOD.  While we did the same podcast last year, we feel it is important that the membership get the chance to hear from the people who represent them, learn a l...

Today’s SWAPA number is 9,144. That’s the number of SWAPA Pilots on the Master Seniority List that new SWAPA president Casey Murray was elected to represent. It’s a difficult job in the best of circumstances, but during these tumultuous times, Casey and his team have their work cut out for them.  Today on the show, we asked Casey to give us his thoughts on where SWAPA has been, where it is now, an...

Today’s SWAPA number is 10. According to the CDC’s latest guidance, that’s how many days are needed to quarantine after a COVID exposure. Since this new change has some very real effects on our Pilots, we decided to bring back SWAPA Vice President Mike Santoro to give us an update on what to expect if you have been exposed, how you might expect to be contacted, and how the process moves forward. I...