Next up, the pilots at US Airways and all those furloughed US Airways pilots now working for other airlines.

As most of you know, a crucial part of the merger between what was US Airways (US Airways East) and America West (US Airways West) is a merger of the two airlines’ pilot groups.

While both groups are represented by ALPA, that is where any semblance of unity ends between these two groups.

Not surprisingly, the major issue here, as it has been since the merger was first announced, is the issue of how the two groups would be merged. The US Airways East pilot group has argued that Date of Hire (DOH) should be the way seniority is determined. Not surprising, in that you’d have most US Airways East pilots end up on top of the bulk of the US Airways West pilots. Remember that folks were flying for US Airways before America West even existed.

Friday, an arbitrator ruled on the issue of the merged seniority list.

In this case, I think it would be fair to say there is a little on both sides to make folks happy, and probably more on both sides to make some folks upset. Just depends on the individual pilot’s  situation.

In a nutshell, the very senior US Airways East pilots were placed above all US Airways West pilots, but that does not stay the same as the list moves through the middle and junior levels of the US Airways East pilot group.

In those tiers, both mid-level and lower US Airways East pilots were placed at a disadvantage to the US Airways West pilots.

So, if someone is currently a senior US Airways East pilot — he or she should be pretty happy. If he or she is a senior US Airways West pilot, that is not the case. And so it goes.

But from the top tiers down, it appears that the US Airways West pilots came out on the better end of the stick.

One other fact that we can’t overlook in this decision — the fact that there are hundreds of furloughed US Airways pilots now working at other airlines. Before this decision was made, it is clear that a handful of airlines were sweating the outcome. Why? If the decision had gone further in terms of giving US Airways East pilots higher seniority overall — the fear was that some of the furloughed US Airways East pilots would leave their new environs and go back to US Airways — to take advantage of their better seniority status.

Looking at the details of this decision — I don’t think this is going to be that big of an issue now.

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