Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224 and Silver Airways Partner to Begin Addressing Pilot Shortage

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Feb 06, 2014, 10:44 ET

Pay Raises and Retention Bonuses Support Pilots and Continued Airline Growth

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Silver Airways and its pilots, represented by the Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224 (Local 1224) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division (IBTAD), today announced that they have successfully partnered to reach an agreement that will help address pilot shortages at the airline and provide Silver's pilots with pay increases and quality of life improvements.

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The two groups have been working since August 2013 on a midterm contract solution that will increase pilot pay and provide quality of life enhancements, while at the same time allowing the airline to better operate and continue to grow. Once ratified by the pilots, the Letter of Agreement will also assist the airline in attracting and retaining high quality pilots by immediately boosting pay, enhancing commuting and schedule flexibility, and allowing all pilots who remain with the Company for another year to earn a cash retention bonus.

The agreement was negotiated over the last several months, and it is being strongly endorsed by both the Silver Executive Council and their Teamster local. Final approval, however, is subject to ratification by Silver's pilot membership.

"We are very pleased that we reached a mutually beneficial agreement that recognizes the value of our pilots and the key role they play at Silver, while at the same time ensuring that our company can operate successfully and continue to grow and expand. Achieving these goals is an outcome that will not only allow us to secure and better our pilots' jobs, it will create more advancement opportunity enabling our pilots to gain the experience needed to quickly advance in their careers as professional aviators, both here and throughout the industry. We are fortunate to have very skilled pilots here at Silver, and we hope that they will make a career with us. We believe that our new agreement with the Union will satisfy all of our pilots regardless of their future plans," said Silver Airways President and CEO Dave Pflieger. "I would like to thank Captain Daniel Wells, Captain Richard Green, the Teamsters, and our pilot leadership team here at Silver for their incredible hard work and dedication throughout our ground-breaking discussions. I firmly believe that we have achieved a unique win-win agreement that will strengthen the wages and quality of life of our pilots while ensuring our ability to grow and become a successful new, next generation regional airline."

"We are extremely pleased with the outcome of our efforts," said Captain Richard Green, Silver Executive Council Chairman for Local 1224. "We were not interested in discussions that didn't benefit our members. This new agreement addressed key outstanding issues we wanted resolved, and it will provide economic gains and quality of life improvements for all of our pilots."

Captain Daniel Wells, president of the Airline Professional Association Teamsters Local 1224, who is also a 747 captain with Atlas Air and 28-year industry veteran, added "We believe this outcome should serve as a model for the rest of the regional airline industry. We do not have a 'skills-gap' but rather a 'pay-gap' in the airline industry. There are plenty of people in this country who could become airline pilots – and want to - it's a great career. But with low starting wages, it is presently not a good economic decision. This agreement with Silver helps toward the realization that the best way to address our nationwide pilot shortage is by enhancing the quality of life of regional pilots and by elevating the pilot profession. A significant step in the right direction is to help our pilots earn a decent living that allows them to recoup the costs they have invested to build flight time, earn the required FAA certifications, and become the highly trained and professional commercial pilots they are. Given the positive outcome we have achieved for our pilots here, we look forward to working closely with the new leadership team at Silver Airways as they strengthen, grow and hire more pilots."

About Silver Airways
Silver Airways Corp. (IATA: 3M) is a U.S. owned and operated airline operating approximately 170 daily scheduled flights to/from 38 destinations in Florida, the Bahamas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. The airline, which offers more flights within Florida to the Bahamas than any other U.S. airline, has valued partnership and codeshare agreements with United Airlines and interline agreements with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue and US Airways.

Silver is a 2013 two-time award winner, having been recognized by its industry and the traveling public. In February 2013, it was named the recipient of Air Transport World's (ATW) 2013 Regional Airline of the Year Award, the first U.S. airline to win regional aviation's top honor since 2008. This award recognized Silver's outstanding achievements, as well as the company's contributions toward elevating the entire regional aviation industry overall. In October 2013, Silver was named one of the Top 10 "Best U.S. Airlines" in the prestigious Condé Nast Traveler's 26^th annual 2013 Readers' Choice Awards.

The Silver fleet is comprised of Saab 340B Plus aircraft (with a capacity of 34 passengers in a spacious, noise reduction equipped cabin), each powered by highly reliable, fuel-efficient GE jet-turbine propeller engines. The airline also operates Beechcraft 1900D aircraft (maximum seating capacity of 19 passengers) in the airline's Cleveland network.

The company is privately owned by Victory Park Capital, a Chicago-based investment firm that launched the airline in May 2011.

Visit Silver Airways at www.silverairways.com.

About the Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224
The Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224 is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division and represents nearly 4,000 members among ten air carriers that operate both passenger and cargo aircraft. Local 1224 is the certified bargaining unit that represents all flight crew members employed by ABX Air, Inc.; Allegiant Air; Atlas Air, Inc.; Brendan Airways, LLC; Horizon Air Industries, Inc.; Hyannis Air Services, Inc.; Kalitta Air, LLC; Miami Air International; Omni Air International; Silver Airways Corporation; and Southern Air, Inc.

SOURCE Teamsters Local 1224