American Airlines Battles Pilots Over Alaska’s New Boeing 787s

Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 787-9 departs SFO in March 2024. Alaska lateracquired Hawaiian. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin)

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American Airlines wants to fly more on the West Coast and in the Pacific, partially through a codeshare with Alaska Airlines, but the carrier appears not to want the flying to be done by its own pilots.

In a letter to members on Monday, Nick Silva, president of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 16,000 American pilots, said the airline will code share with Alaska Airlines on new European routes, and potentially on trans-Pacific routes, but won’t allow its pilots to fly the routes. That violates the scope clause of the pilots’ contract.

Silva said management “revealed plans to ignore our contract” in a discussion with him.

Codeshares enable airlines to sell tickets on a second airline’s flights, and to include those tickets on its booking platform. Scope clauses in pilot contracts define the flying to be done by union members. The scope clause of the contract between American and APA allows for domestic codeshares between American and Alaska, but not for international codeshares.

Alaska merged with Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal in September 2024. Among Hawaiian’s assets are five Boeing 787 jets, which became the first widebodies in Alaska’s fleet. Alaska also has orders for about a dozen 787s. Last week, Alaska said it will begin 787 flights to London and Reykjavik in spring 2026.

“Alaska Airlines recently announced even more new European routes, which prompted my request to meet with senior management,” Silva wrote. “In those discussions, management revealed plans to ignore our contract by codesharing on Alaska Airlines’ new long-haul international routes.”

American did not respond to a request to comment on Thursday.

American has long been stymied in efforts to fly transpacific routes, a disadvantage in its competition with peers Delta and United. American’s major Pacific assets is a transpacific alliance with partner Japan Air Lines. The alliance has antitrust immunity, enabling the carriers to coordinate on fares and schedules.

In March, a JAL executive said the carrier is considering whether to allow Alaska to join the alliance, according to the Japanese digital aviation portal Traicy.

Silva said APA’s scope committee has been closely following the developments involving the Alaska/Hawaiian merger, the use of 787s for international routes and the effort to join the alliance.

“The Alaska Airlines codeshare permissions granted by Section 1.G of our contract never contemplated codesharing with a domestic airline to destinations across East Asia and Europe,” Silva wrote. “Moreover, the widebody aircraft Alaska Airlines plans to operate on these routes all belong to Hawaiian Airlines and are thus subject to the limits on codesharing with Hawaiian Airlines or its successor.

“Why is this so harmful to the pilots of American Airlines?” Silva wrote. “The introduction of American Airlines’ code onto Alaska Airlines’ international network will provide another way for American Airlines to farm out widebody flying to other airlines — flying that pilots on our seniority list could and should be performing.”

APA spokesman Dennis Tajer noted that the pilots’ scope clause is the first section in the contract.

“Scope is a religious issue to pilots,” Tajer said. “It’s about our current and future jobs that our families count on. There are few, if any, issues around which our pilot group will unite more than an attack on our scope protection.” He said the APA contract restricts Alaska code shares to domestic flying and restricts Hawaiian codeshares to flights between Hawaiian islands.

Silva said he has filed two grievances. In late October, an arbitrator will hear the grievance regarding the Alaska code share. No hearing has yet been scheduled on the second grievance, filed because “the widebody aircraft Alaska Airlines plans to operate on these routes all belong to Hawaiian Airlines and are thus subject to the limits on codesharing with Hawaiian Airlines or its successor. “