One of the biggest "complaints" from the TWA MEC during the seniority discussions with APA was that STL would absorb all the furloughs if they were crammed on to the bottom of the list.
What the MEC didn't tell their folks is that their proposal to APA had the 500 most junior pilots on TWA's list go to the bottom anyway.
Effectively, this WOULD have ensured any pilots on the original AA side that were called back after April 5th would be automatically replaced on the street by STL pilots and the chess game by AMR could begin, all things being equal.
Of the 209 furloughed in November 2001, sadly only 208 will return. Steve Zirkle was killed in an auto accident while on furlough (you think your situation sucked, recently!).
Fortunately, with passengers returning in their droves, there is little chance of further reductions in manning at AA and the STL folks will not be "trading places" with the 208.
There are 386 original AA pilots and 230(ish) STL pilots still out on furlough.
Just so there's no misunderstanding, I've labelled one group "original AA" and the other "STL" (former TWA) in order to avoid confusing the layman. It's not meant as a stab at TWA's pilots.
We're all one now!
Cheers,