American Airlines Pilots Union Says Deal With Isom Helped Holiday Ops

Like its peers, American Airlines declared victory after the Thanksgiving Day weekend, saying air travel – under a microscope after early summer slowdowns – went smoothly.

Allied Pilots Association, which represents American’s 15,000 pilots, said a July deal between APA President Ed Sicher and American CEO Robert Isom contributed to the strong performance. The pair negotiated a letter of agreement awarding double time pay for holiday season flying.

Isom “and President Sicher worked that out over the phone in July,” said APA spokesman Dennis Tajer. However, Tajer said, Isom’s effort to cap future pay increases is now a hindrance to a contract deal.

The double-time pay deal means that during the Thanksgiving holiday and for the approaching Christmas holiday, American’s pilot availability has improved. “When the bids came in for November and December, people who normally would avoid flying during the holiday season were bidding for it,” Tajer said.

“That creates a buffer of staffing that we never had before, created by incented flying,” he said. “It’s proof that outside the box ideas can lead to a more reliable airline. It worked, but we do have concerns that unless other scheduling practices are improved, Christmas travel may not be as reliable if it’s stress-tested by mother nature.”

Tajer said APA borrowed the concept from American regional carriers, where it has worked successfully.

The Delta Air LinesDAL
contract with the Air Line Pilots Association specifies that pilots will be paid double time for flying on their off days, including holidays. The United ALPA contract does not have a holiday premium pay rule, but the carrier can elect to pay overtime — up to double time — for any flight where it needs coverage

Regarding APA contract talks, Tajer said pilots have more proposals that would enable the strong performance to continue. One proposal would make more pilot instructors available, addressing the long delays in training. APA wants a 30% bonus for captains on scheduled flights to train new pilots. (The first officer scheduled for the flight would also be paid.) “What happens now is they have to take a check pilot away from the simulator,” Tajer said.

On November 2, APA said it had rejected a tentative agreement and recalled the negotiating committee that agreed to it. The 20-member board will advise the new negotiating team next week, enabling negotiations to resume soon afterwards.

A key issue in the recall was that while American has maintained that it wants its pilots to be the best paid in the industry, the negotiating team agreed to a proposal to impose a cap if other carriers’ contracts come in higher than American’s. “Isom wants to sneak in a cost advantage,” Tajer said.

The rejected tentative agreement says that if, on the date of signing plus two years (DOS +2), Delta or United or both have provided increases in their respective pilot pay rates, then the American Airlines pilot pay rates will be compared and adjusted to the higher rate.

However, the TA says, “the wage adjustment shall not exceed three percent (3%) of the DOS +2 pay rates.”

As for holiday operations, David Seymour, American chief operating officer, commended employees for the carrier’s operational performance during the Thanksgiving travel period.

From Friday Nov. 16 through Sunday, Nov. 27, American reported its best Thanksgiving period completion factor since 2017 and its “best-ever controllable completion factor for the holiday period,” Seymour wrote in a letter to employees.

Completion factor during the 10-day period was 99.6%. Of the 50,000 flights during the 10 days, “We had only 28 cancels due to controllable factors,” Seymour wrote. “In fact, mainline had four consecutive zero-cancel days, which is the first time since the merger. And our regional operation saw one zero-cancel day.

“We have a lot to be a proud of, including an exceptionally strong Thanksgiving period operation that was more than 20% larger than that of our next major competitor,” he wrote, referring to Delta.

During the Thanksgiving holiday period, from Wednesday through Monday Nov. 28, Delta flew 2.79 passengers, surpassing its 2021 level by 7.2%. During the period, Delta completion factor was 99.9%. Only 13 flights cancelled, at both Delta and Delta Connection during the six-day period. On Monday, Delta had no cancellations.

United said it had its second-best on-time performance ever for the eight-day holiday travel period. Between Nov. 21 and Nov. 27, key hubs at ORD and IAD each had just one cancellation.