Flight attendants at American Airlines have been expressing their frustration with the company after they were offered a profit share of just 1.1% on the back of the Dallas Fort Worth-based carrier reporting a record full-year revenue of approximately $53 billion and income of $822 million for 2023.
Flight attendants and other exasperated AA employees have compared the 1.1% profit share against what their peers at United and Delta Air Lines will receive in profit sharing for 2023 – 9.1% and approximately 10.3%, respectively.
Historically, profit sharing at American Airlines has always trailed behind United and Delta, but Thursday’s announcement comes at a particularly tense time as flight attendants at American Airlines press to be released to go on strike.
Last week, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) made a second request to the National Mediation Board for permission to go on strike, although they are still waiting for a decision from the board.
In the meantime, the NMB has given American Airlines until February 2 to reply to the union’s request. In effect, this is an opportunity for the airline to argue why it thinks flight attendants shouldn’t be granted permission to go on strike.
The sticking point in contract negotiations has been AA’s refusal to revisit an 11% pay rise, although both sides are due to meet again for mediated talks on February 5, and a conference to discuss the state of negotiations will be held at the NMB’s headquarters in early March.
Surprisingly, American Airlines is offering a lower percentage of profit sharing for 2023 compared to 2022 despite continued strong travel demand and forecast headwinds failing to materialize as much as some industry analysts had feared.
Back in 2016, American Airlines offered a profit share of 3%, but in recent years, profit sharing hasn’t breached 2%.
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