Today’s SWAPA number is 24 million. That’s the amount of money SWA will contribute to employee PS for Q1. It’s one of the first signs we’re recovering from the worst of the pandemic. With Q1 earnings last month and the annual shareholder meeting this month, we thought it would be a good time to talk to EFA Chair Erich Schnitzler about recent financials, what’s going on in the industry, and to give us some idea of what Wall Street analysts think about our future prospects and the strategic value those relationships provide to SWAPA.

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Today’s SWAPA number is 815. That’s the number of hits our current website gets on a daily basis. While that may seem like a lot, in reality that’s far fewer than what we’d like to see. 

In an effort to give the membership a better experience and provide some more searchability, SWAPA has been working for many months on a redesign of the site. So on today’s episode we are going to talk to two staff members who have been working on the site’s design and functionality: Solutions Architect Jason Brooks and Communications Specialist Casey Casteel. 

While it is important to mention that they have had a host of other people supporting them, they have really been the front line people on this project.

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Today’s SWAPA number is 112. That’s the number of days our SWAPA President Casey Murray has held office. In that brief period, our Association has had to handle WARN Notices, the pandemic and vaccines, the MAX return to service, early ExTO recalls, and the return to Contract 2020 negotiations.

To say it’s been a busy time would an understatement. So today on the show, we’re going to talk to Case about his first three months on the job and find out from him what his plans are for SWAPA for the rest of 2021.

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Today's SWAPA Number Is 71. That's the percentage of traffic to swapa.org that are SRC items. The depth and breadth of articles, blogs, phone calls, and educational pieces that the SRC puts out is just incredible. SRC authored six of the 13 SEP cycles during the buildup to Contract 2020. Scheduling was and is front and center throughout the process.

And that's because a large part of this negotiation will center around fixing some of the inefficiencies in the schedule, as well as increasing productivity and improving the operation. 

Hopefully with 2020 behind us, starting in April, the SWAPA NC is finally getting back to the table with Labor Relations. So on today's show, we've talked to Scott Plyler, SRC Chair, and Schedule Research Supervisor, Meagan Nelan about some of the lessons learned over the past year, as well as some of the concepts and processes that are going to be a central part of our upcoming negotiations.

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Today’s SWAPA Number is 196. That’s the size of the Southwest’s newest ETOPs bid group in Las Vegas. 

The timing and method of the announcement is causing our pilots to ask a lot of questions, so today on this special edition of the podcast, we’re talking with SRC Chair Scott Plyler and Scheduling Analyst Cara Monahan who will try to fill in some of the blanks in the Company’s recent announcement and help our pilots plan for the upcoming vacancy.

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Today’s SWAPA Number is 38. That’s the number of surveys and polls SWAPA ran during the SEP process during preparations for Contract 2020 alone. Our Association doesn’t make all of our decisions based only on polling results, but they serve as an important source of data when it comes to SWAPA’s Strength in Numbers.

SWAPA doesn’t have any polls coming soon that we know of, but when we conduct one, we see a lot of membership engagement both on the poll itself and in social media and in direct emails to SWAPA, so today on the show, we’re going to talk with Economic, Financial Analysis and Industry Research Committee Member Greg Auld who is our resident polling expert about all things polling related. 

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Today’s SWAPA Number is 40. That’s the number of full-time staff members SWAPA employs to serve our membership. When our Pilots think about SWAPA, they think about reps, execs, and committee Pilots doing the work, but there are dozens of non-Pilot staffers putting in long hours for our membership as well.

So today on the show, we’re going to talk with SWAPA Executive Director Matt Redding. He’s going to tell us about the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at Empire Central and how SWAPA is working to continuously improve when it comes to customer service and making sure our Pilots get the best bang for their buck from their dues.

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Today’s SWAPA Number is 19%. That’s the percentage of SWAPA pilots that contribute to the SWAPA PAC. Compare that to American Airlines pilots who contribute almost twice as much money per month and you can see we have some ground to make up.

Worse than that though, take a look at NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, a one quarter our size with the same total PAC contributions. Politics is never an easy topic to discuss, especially in these polarizing times, but the nation’s heightened interest in Washington underscores the importance of SWAPA’s engagement. So we’ve invited Chip Hancock, Kyle Moore, and Derek Tate from the SWAPA Government Affairs Committee to tell us about their work in DC, what they’re doing to protect our careers, and what our pilots can do to support them.

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Today’s SWAPA Number is 3 billion. That’s Southwest Airlines’ net cash position today. Despite the unprecedented damage the pandemic has done to our economy and industry, our airline still has more cash on hand than we have debt. We are fortunate to work for an extraordinarily strong company. 

Last week, the Company announced fourth quarter and full year earnings, so today on the show, we’re going to ask EFA and NC member Damian Jennette to give us a rundown of Southwest’s financials, tell us know how our competitors around the industry did in comparison, and offer a little color from the earnings conference call with Wall Street.

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Today’s SWAPA number is 4. That is the number of new BOD members elected for 2021. On the show today, we talked to each of them about their background, what drove them to run for office, and what they hope to accomplish in their time on the BOD. 

While we did the same podcast last year, we feel it is important that the membership get the chance to hear from the people who represent them, learn a little bit about those they have elected,  And, hopefully, encourage a few more people to get involved next time around.

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