The SWAPA Number

Today's SWAPA Number is two because today we're sitting down and telling the stories of two pilots in our ranks that are some of the most powerful we've had the honor of sharing on this show.

Midway First Officer Emanuel Prince grew up on Chicago's west side in a two-bedroom apartment with his eight siblings. While most of his friends were trying to be like Mike, Prince had his heart set on being a pilot. Despite a multitude of challenges during his childhood, Prince landed an internship with McDonald's corporate flight department and never looked back. He burned the candle at both ends for years as a Southwest ground operations employee, building time when he could, but ultimately resigned from the Company to fly for several carriers before finding himself back at Southwest in January of 2024.

Baltimore First Officer Jared Savage grew up in Compton, California. He was raised by his mother and grandmother and grew up with his twin. During his senior year of high school, Jared obtained his private pilot license at the age of 18, the same year he was accepted to Tuskegee University. Unable to afford continuing his flight training, Jared worked as a lineman at Moton Field for almost a year, eventually earning enough money to complete his instrument rating. While finishing his training, he met some key figures in his life that helped him land a scholarship and proceeded to become the first flight instructor for the Red Tail Scholarship Foundation. Jared is still heavily involved with the Red Tail Flight Academy in Tuskegee, Alabama.

The road to the right seat of Southwest Airlines is never easy, but these two stories of overcoming adversity and somehow managing to give back are ones we can all learn from.

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Today's SWAPA Number is 14%. That's the amount that is recommended to ensure that you maximize your employee contributions and your catch-up contributions before your NEC caps out.

So today we're sitting down with two of our resident experts on retirement, staff members, Mike Haynes and Kevin Sheth. Mike and Kevin have a combined 44 years of experience in this world and have a lot of insight to provide on top of what we've communicated so far about the new planned features. But there's no such thing as being too smart on the retirement planning front. So let's dive into what's new in 2026.

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Today's SWAPA Number is 400. That's the number of new hires we expect on property during the first half of 2026. We're always happy to welcome new pilots to this airline, and these new hires will experience a training program that has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years.

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The latest (and last) episode of the SWAPA Ride Report is up! To be clear, the regularly scheduled programming that is the SWAPA Number podcast will still continue. In fact, we will air our conversation with the SWAPA Training and Standards Committee on Monday, December 22. With all the procedures changes coming next month, this is one you don't want to miss. 

In today's Ride Report, Communications Committee Chair Matt McCants reviews the relationship between the new Austin domicile and Domicile Right of Return (DRR). AUS is available in CWA, so take a moment to add that to your vacancy bid. He also goes over the optional and mandatory plan changes for your 401(k) in 2026. More education is coming on that front, but take a look at the 401(k) Committee's synopsis to get a feel for whether these plan changes are right for you and your family. This week's Contract Q&A focuses on key legality knowledge. What does a deadhead demote do to your contractually required rest? What could happen if you miss a RAP start? Listen in and find out. 

We end the show with a sneak preview of the education that sets the stage for the Survey Educate and Poll (SEP) process, including some volunteer opportunities. If you've been looking for a way to get involved, drop us a line at [email protected] and we'll plug you in. You can find this episode of the SWAPA Ride Report on the SWAPA app or your favorite streaming service under The SWAPA Number profile. 

 Until next time...

Fly safe, fly informed.

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Today's SWAPA Number is 10. That's the percentage of the population that suffers from substance use disorder, and pilots are not an exception to that.

So today we're talking to Tom Stanley, chair of the Human Intervention Motivation Study, or HIMS, to get an update on the work his committee does and to remind our pilots of this important resource that can save your career as a pilot at Southwest Airlines.

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In this week’s edition, SWAPA Communication Committee Member Tony Mulhare discusses the recently implemented Deadhead Self-Release functionality in CrewHub and how to set your training move up preference on either your EFB or via SWALife. 

 He also provides a timely reminder on where to find Holiday Pay Override information on the payroll report.  This week’s Contract Q&A discusses timelines for when scheduling has to run uncovered flying through the open time process before assigning a reserve, holiday pay overrides and trip trading, a question on added flying to the end of a pairing, and more.

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Today's SWAPA Number is 112. That's the average TFP per active pilot since contract ratification in January, 2024. Even with low density schedules and low levels of reroute, the new contract pay structure has boosted the 108 average TFP historically used. In fact, we had the second highest monthly TFP ever this past July, 135 TFP average, second only to the January, 2023, immediately post-meltdown average of 139 TFP.

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The theme of this week’s episode is “coming soon” as Communications Committee Chair Matt McCants points to near targets for a number of new scheduling features and 401(k) Plan changes. This means deadhead self-release, reserve ELITT, and footprint protection, to name a few, along with new max deferral percentages and Roth touches on your 401(k).

The Q&A this week has some great information on holiday ELITT and deadhead release, along with what happens to your pairing code when you select Release to Check-In (RTCI). If you’re ever considering a reserve pairing trade, you’ll want to listen in on how that could affect the rest of your month-to-date utilization. 

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Today's SWAPA Number is 14. That's the number of outstanding grievances that are in process relating to contract interpretations. Defending our contract is one of the biggest pillars of what we do at SWAPA when Contract Admin is on the front line of that defense. Without a doubt, there are discussions or questions just about every hour of every day that we're having about this document and how it's impacting our quality of life.

So today we're sitting down with several folks from our Contract Administration committee. That would be committee chair Dave Kudish and committee members, Rob Odom and Dan O'Connor. From how we resolve these issues with the company to the best practices to make your life easier, this is an episode you can't afford to miss.

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In this week’s edition, Committee Member Tony Mulhare discusses the runoff election for SWAPA Vice President and for the BNA & BWI Domicile Reps.  He also discusses recent errors found with training preferences and RCO due to company IT changes to the VDT and reserve preference selections. 

 The weekly contract Q&A focuses on several reserve related questions including how Release to Check In affects Leg Change Override and monthly reserve block overlap corrections.  There are also touches on expense reimbursement for Uber rides and how changing your vacancy bid can impact your expense reimbursement after being displaced.

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