Southwest Reaches Agreement in Principle on Pilot Contract
- Accord allows carrier to operate Boeing’s latest 737 model
- Pilots get annual pay raises, improvements to retirement plan
A Southwest Airlines Co. plane takes off a pilot from the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA) demonstrates outside Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Pilots picketed the meeting to protest the lack of a new contract with the company despite four years of negotiations. The union also recently sued the carrier to block it from flying a new aircraft that's not listed in their current contract.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergSouthwest Airlines Co. and its pilots union agreed on the basics of a contract that will increase pilot pay and retirement benefits and enable the carrier to enter international marketing agreements and fly the latest model of the Boeing Co. 737.
Final wording on the contract terms is expected to be negotiated by the end of this week, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said in a message to its 8,300 members Monday. The two sides had been in talks for more than four years, and the union led other labor groups in a no-confidence vote against the carrier’s chief executive officer earlier this month.