Crew Scheduling Crisis Looms Over Airlines As Washington Dithers

For the airline industry, the complex process of building October flight schedules is supposed to begin next week. Flight planners would go first, then crew schedulers. Then, in the first week of September, flight attendants and pilots would bid for October trips. For each day in October, American Airlines
AAL
alone would set up about 4,000 flights.

But for now, American and other airlines cannot plan.

Instead, they await Congressional action on an economic stimulus bill that would be expected to include about $25 billion to keep airline workers on the payroll until March 30. Without the funding, an estimated 76,000 airline workers could be laid off on Oct. 1 – perhaps all on the same day.

At American, 25,000 employees have received layoff warnings. American is offering voluntary leaves and early out programs, but without knowing whether the fate of payroll protection, it’s hard to know whether to take one. Last week, American extended the application window until 11:59 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17.

“We’re at a critical point now — It can’t wait any longer,” Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said Friday. “Our schedules are made up a month in advance. There’s a lot that has to happen in a short period of time.”

To prevent chaos, Hedrick said, “Congress has to get back to the table and negotiate. We have been reaching out, telling them how important this is.” But for the moment, no talks are scheduled in Washington.

Furlough warning notices have gone out to 9,500 of the 27,000 American flight attendants represented by APFA. Without the stimulus bill, Hedrick said, “There could be massive furloughs across our 13 flight attendant bases.”

Working to build a flight schedule is intense work, said American spokesman Matt Miller said.

For October schedules, he said, “the process starts in late August. Those opting into voluntary (layoff and leave) programs need to be moved out of the list of available crew members. There’s an obvious challenge if you don’t know which flight attendants would be available.”

The same procedure applies in the case of American’s 15,000 pilots, of whom 2,500 have been issued furlough warnings.

Hedrick took over as APFA president on April 1 after winning a February election. Based in Los Angeles, she began her career as an Air Cal reservations agent, becoming a flight attendant in 1982.  At APFA, she has been on the negotiating committee and has also worked on the committee that combined flight attendant work groups following the 2013 American/US Airways merger.

For the past four and a half months, it has largely been all coronavirus crisis all the time.

On April 1, Hedrick recalled, “Our headquarters was shut down; everything was shut down. We had to start remotely, working from home.  We had video calls with (about 100 union officers) every day for the first five weeks. After that it was three days a week for the next month.” Those calls now occur weekly.

Additionally, Hedrick and other labor union leaders meet every two weeks with CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to speak our minds she said. At other times, she contacts executives directly. In July, APFA negotiated the voluntary early out and leave packages that members are now considering.

In March, APFA joined in the historic union effort to win airline pay protection, part of the $2 trillion financial stimulus approved by Congress. As unions seek a second package, APFA alone generated about 50,000 emails. “We know we have bipartisan support; we have 16 Republican Senators who signed on, but we need the bill to happen,” Hedrick said.

It has been a difficult time for flight attendants who engage daily with passengers, try to avoid getting sick and often finding themselves in the middle of the culture war over face masks.

“It’s not an easy job today,” Hedrick said. “In the first month, we pressed the company to require face coverings not only for flight attendants but also for passengers and others in the airport.  

“We were able to achieve that (but) we have been disappointed in the lack of leadership” on masks by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, she said, noting “The airlines have had to do it on their own.”

American pilots, members of the Allied Pilots Association, are in the same situation as flight attendants.

“We’re looking ahead to October and people see an impending crisis when it comes to layoffs,” said APA spokesman Dennis Tajer.  “Having the kind of uncertainty, we have right now is like flying without radar – You’re just hoping things turn out.

“You can’t fly that way,” Tajer said.