Although east pilot leaders backed Nicolau's appointment as arbitrator, then refused his request to compromise on date-of-hire seniority, few envisioned his eventual ruling. The most controversial component, in an example of why people would oppose an arbitration ruling after agreeing to arbitration, places a 56-year-old pilot with 17 years at US Airways, never laid off, behind a 35-year-old America West pilot with a few months on the job (not Hummel and Ferguson, despite the similarities in age). In hundreds of similar cases, US Airways pilots with 15 or more years at the carrier went behind America West pilots with just a few years.