Pilots at Southwest Airlines have overwhelmingly approved a new contract that will raise their pay rates by nearly 50% by 2028, becoming the last group of pilots at the nation’s four biggest airlines to score huge raises.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said Monday that the agreement covering pay and other issues for about 11,000 pilots was ratified by a 93% to 7% margin.
Airline labor groups – and pilots in particular – have succeeded in negotiating pay raises over the past year as most U.S. have returned to solid profitability coming out of the pandemic. Pilots have been helped by a shortage, particularly at smaller carriers that act as training grounds for American, Delta, United and Southwest.
The Southwest agreement followed more than three years of bargaining.
Never said it was easy, but it doesn’t spend every penny of your money.
You don’t even have to go into debt for the bachelors degree; you can join with whatever job isn’t likely to deploy you (more jobs than you’d think aren’t really deployed) go to college free while in (doesn’t count against GI bill or anything), and then apply for a rate change to the pilot program.
Sure it means more military, but again, doesn’t spend all your money.
There is even a way to use your gi bill for flight training (you have to have a private pilots license already, but that’s a lot cheaper than a commercial one, and pass a medical qualification) so you could hypothetically serve 4 years as whatever rating, get your private license and then have the rest of your training covered.