This doesn’t bode well for American Airlines’ operational reliability over the upcoming holiday travel periods…
American offers pilots up to 200% holiday pay
American Airlines had an operational meltdown over Halloween, primarily due to staff shortages. The airline is trying to avoid this for the upcoming busy holiday travel periods (Thanksgiving, Christmas, the New Year, etc.), so is offering employees significant pay bumps to show up to work over the holidays. While this is costly, it’ll cost less than the operation melting down once again.
For example, a few days ago I wrote about how American Airlines flight attendants will receive 150% pay for all flights over peak holiday dates, and 300% pay if they have a perfect attendance record over the course of several weeks.
American Airlines has made a similar offer to pilots. This would impact pilots who work over the following dates:
- November 23 through November 29, 2021
- December 22, 2021, through January 2, 2022
The idea is as follows:
- Pilots would receive 150% pay for all flights over peak holiday dates
- Pilots who pick up trips during the period would receive 200% pay
- Pilots would receive positive space travel to their base; this means that pilots who don’t live at their base would be guaranteed a seat to get to work, rather than having to fly standby
It’s a generous offer, no doubt, and you’d think pilots would be happy about this, and view it as a significant incentive. For example, a senior 777 captain at American would be getting a pay bump from $342 per hour to $513-682 per hour. To be clear, contractually American doesn’t have to offer this, but rather the airline is just trying to offer an extra incentive to make sure people show up to work.
American pilot union rejects holiday pay bump
The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents American Airlines’ pilots, has rejected the company’s offer. Not just by a narrow margin, but it was…