Pension liabilities at Legacy carriers

[shon7]

With all this talk of pension reform (especially for the public sector unions), I'm curious as to what spillover effect this could have for pension reform at the major legacy carriers (if any).

 

[Full of LUV]

With all this talk of pension reform (especially for the public sector unions), I'm curious as to what spillover effect this could have for pension reform at the major legacy carriers (if any).

Most of the pension "reform" in the majors has been done via BK court. The only majors left with a defined benefit plan is AA, AK, FEDEX, UPS. Everyone elses has been either frozen or cancelled (transferred to the PBGC) through BK court and mergers.
Most majors now have a defined contribution plan where the company puts money into investments in your name. Good in the sense that the the plan is now portable, in cold hard cash (well depending on your investment choice) and not subject to the future viability of your company.
I'd say the airline industry is in much better shape pension wise than the public sector.
LUV

 

[BoilerUP]

Much like healthcare & pension liabilities put the Big 3 at a competitive disadvantage (to speak nothing of product quality) to foreign automakers in terms of employee unit costs, public sector healthcare & pension benefits are contributing to the MASSIVE red ink being spilled by local & state governments...to speak nothing of our national balance sheet.

I truly hate to see a benefit folks EARNED over 20+ years of service be lost...but with retired folks largely living longer & less-healthy lives, the defined benefit pension is quickly going the way of the dodo and I really wouldn't be surprised to see municipalities freezing existing DB plans and shifting future employees/earned benefits to a defined contribution type of employee retirement.