1. If you work at a unionized company, the labor contract almost always sipulates any furloughs are in reverse seniority, regardless of type of equipment flown. In non-union companies like Ryan, they furloughed by equipment flown. They decided to cut back one type of aircraft so they furloughed the pilots flying them, regardless of seniority. If a company can do this they save HUGE amounts of money because they don't have to retrain pilots to adjust to the new equipment numbers.
Say a company is retiring all their F-100s rapidly, so they would LIKE to just furlough the F-100 pilots and save on retraining costs, but the labor contract does not allow it. This will drive huge training costs as the remaining pilots have to shift aircraft to adjust to the new mix.
Pilots, in general, are not paid "salary." They are paid by the hours they fly (which does not bear any resemblence to the hours "at work.")
Furloughed pilots MAY get a small one-time "furlough pay" if specified contractually. Benefits medical/dental/insurance/passes almost always stop when furloughed. The pilot can participate in the medical COBRA for a few months, but that involves paying the medical premium themselves (which is VERY expensive . . perhaps as much as $500-700 per month.) If a member of you're family is sick and running up medical bills, the company couldn't care less . . . it's your problem.
Airline managements will not/cannot tell you how long you will be out. If you're in a unionized company and furloughed by seniority, you will know how many are in front of you when recalled.
During furlough, if you get another job with another company, that new company will probably demand that you resign (forfet recall rights) from your original employer.
Callback from furlough is also contracturally specified and is in seniority order. If you're in a non-union company, the company can do whatever they want. There are also huge costs of retraining (you may go back to a different aircraft when recalled) and the company can probably only handle so many training cycles per month. So, if you've got 1000 guys above you and you are all recalled, it may be a year before you actually get a training slot and are being paid again.
