Hey, I could be talking about the push to get a passenger rights bill passed.

No, I really didn’t plan for today to be the Southwest AIrlines news day.

But this afternoon SWAPA, the pilot’s union at Southwest, announced a new tentative agreement with the company. This will be the second attempt by both sides at getting a new contract ratified.

Highlights of the contract behind door number two are:

The current number of Lance Captains, as of the ratification date, will be grandfathered for the term of the agreement. (This was a big reason the attempt to ratify the last last TA failed.)

ELITT restrictions will drop from previous TA and is now contractual.

The new Open Time system as explained in the previous TA will now have a test period (circuit breaker) in which SWAPA can opt out.

In terms of compensation, the new agreement includes raises and full retro pay.

There is an increase in 401(k) matching by the company.

And on the subject of codesharing, the TA lowers the previously negotiated near-international ASM cap, and it removes Frontier-specific RJ exemption language.