Scope Relief: What United Really Wants
I know this is going to come as a shock to you, but I’m writing a post about United and it doesn’t involve dead or misplaced animals. Instead, let’s talk about something that is actually way more emotional… if you’re a pilot. You’ll remember United’s growth strategy that was unveiled in its most recent earnings call. Now the airline is publicly saying what many knew all along. This strategy is intertwined with the ability for the airline to get scope relief. This sounds a bit strange since United has the ability to influence this issue today, but it’s greedy and wants more. It sounds like United is doing its best impression of Veruca Salt here.
American, Delta, and United all have pretty substantial outsourcing operations when it comes to aircraft under 100 seats. You’ve likely flown on one of these outsourced partners, the ones branded American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express. In the early days, the airlines outsourced freely, but they also generally focused on small props in small cities that didn’t really interest mainline employees. In the 1990s, the regional jet came out, and then bigger regional jets became more popular in the 2000s. All of a sudden, outsourcing became contentious. Airlines liked to use regional partners, because they could do the flying for less money. And on a small airplane with fewer seats, that made a big difference. It also hurt mainline jobs. The pilots at the mainline airlines were powerless to do much when the airlines could continue to flail and point to red ink. Once things stabilized, however, the pilots fought back.
Enter the importance of what’s called the “scope clause.” This clause in pilot contracts is the biggest limiter in determining how many airplanes can be outsourced to regional partners. These scope clauses used to be all over the map, but over time, the big three have seen the details converge. Basically, the airlines are allowed to outsource aircraft with 76 seats or fewer, and there are numbers limiting how many of the larger 70/76 seat jets can be flown. There is some nuance here, but I’m going to simplify to get my point across. Here’s how the big three stack up in terms of what they can do.
| No meaningful limit |
