The sour economy has caused the freight volume of the United Parcel Service (UPS) to drop sharply forcing the company to propose significant budget cuts, including the furloughing of 300 pilots. UPS and its pilots’ union, the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) has reached an agreement to freeze furloughing until at least April 2010. UPS First Officer, Brent Maggio says, “I’ve been furloughed a number of times in my flying career, but at my age of 49, I’m not in a position to start over from scratch. I have a house and a family to provide for and flying jobs are currently few and far between.” The agreement is certainly good news for Brent and his fellow pilots, but hopefully things improve by April so furloughing can be avoided, once more.

UPS and IPA have set a goal of saving $131 million in pilot savings over a span of the next three years. $90M is the amount trimmed so far, due to pilots taking leaves of absence, job sharing, military leave, reduced flight pay, and early retirement. The IPA will continue to work hard to find more cuts, other than furloughing to achieve the $131 million goal. UPS has already saved over $1 billion by freezing upper management salaries, suspending 401k matching, and restructuring.