AirTran's Learning From History

Considering their background as onetime Eastern Airlines employees, leaders on both sides of the negotiations between AirTran Airways AAI and its pilots are taking a decidedly moderate approach.

Recent turmoil in the airline industry has left the carrier and the pilots in relatively favorable positions, so that neither side seeks major changes. It's a far cry from what happened at Eastern, where hostility between management and labor led to a three-union strike that shut the airline down 15 years ago.

"We've all learned from Eastern," says Allen Philpot, a one-time Eastern striker who serves as president of the National Pilots Association, the independent union that represents AirTran's 1,400 pilots.

AirTran Chairman Joe Leonard served Eastern in a variety of executive posts, including president. The airline's chief negotiator is Steve Kolski, a veteran of four decades in the airline industry, including four years at Eastern. All three worked at the airline during its final tumultuous years.

In a sense, the AirTran negotiations go against the grain in today's airline-labor environment. Nearly every recent negotiation has involved concessions made in an effort to promote the survival of carriers operating under bankruptcy-court protection.

The current round of talks at both AirTran and US Airways LCC involve pilots who want to share in the good times at two of the strongest airlines -- even though they're so far seeing just marginal profitability. AirTran has posted annual profits since 2002, but lost $4.6 million in the first quarter of this year.

"We understand the company not wanting to raise costs," Philpot says. "We want them to make money, and we are going to give them a contract that will work for them. That's why we're not going after huge wage increases. We're just trying to fix some quality-of-life issues."