1.03.03

Hello. This is George Price, APFA National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Friday, January 3, 2003.

The process of analyzing the company’s financial data will continue next week. As President Ward said in his December 20, 2002 hotline message, once this review and analysis is concluded, he intends to convene a special meeting of the APFA Board of Directors to address the issues in depth and determine an appropriate response. It is the APFA’s hope this process can be completed by the end of January. The pay raises scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2003 will be reflected in the January 15, 2003 paychecks.

The Missouri Workforce Commission will hold Rapid Response meetings in St. Louis for American Airlines employees who have been or may be affected by reduction in force. Information regarding re-employment services such as unemployment insurance benefits, labor market information, career counseling, classroom training, and other services available through the dislocated workers program will be provided during the course of the meeting. Meetings will be held in the Joann Wayne Room at the St. Louis Airport on January 10th and 11th at 1000 and 1400 and January 17th at 1200. For more information on the Rapid Response meetings please call the Division of Workforce Development at 1-800-877-8698 or visit the APFA Web site.

The deadline for completion of the on-line two-class training for all 767 qualified international Flight Attendants is January 12th. The training program can be accessed through the flight service web site at www.aafltsvc.com or through a Jetset in flight service operations.

As a reminder, the proffer for Overage Leaves and Partnership Flying will close at 0800 Central Time on Tuesday, January 7th. Awards should be posted on or about Friday, January 10th. If a furlough is necessary, it will be done in accordance with Article 16.B.1, Page 185 of the contract, which states “When there is a reduction in force, the Flight Attendant(s) with the least system seniority shall be laid off.” A maximum of 400 Flight Attendants are “subject to” furlough on January 31, 2003. Contrary to rumors, the APFA has not been notified by the company of additional overages beyond the overage that exists February 1.

The APFA Safety Department would like to encourage all Flight Attendants to access the most current security information released by the United States Government by visiting the SSI Web site. This site can be accessed through the flight service web site. The information contained on this site includes security directives, information circulars, and daily security updates.

This week, additional information and a new feature were added to the APFA Web site. Stock information for the airline industry was added to the “APFA Resources” page. In addition, we included the APFA Audit previously included in the August 2002 Skyword on the web site under “Hot Topics” and “APFA Info” on the member’s only side of the site.

In industry news:

American announced this week that it would layoff 415 workers my mid-January. The workers affected by this reduction are 218 Fleet Service Clerks and 197 Airport Agents.

American posted fourth quarter and year-ending traffic results late in the week. In December, American flew 10.4 billion system wide revenue passenger miles or RPMs. This reflects a 14% increase over 2001 and a decrease of 5.7% from 2000. An RPM is one revenue passenger flown one mile. The load factor for December was 73.3%, which was up 6.1 points from 2001 and 4.4 points higher than 2000. For the year, American flew 121.7 billion RPMs down 4.2% from 2001. The load factor for 2002 was 70.7%, which was up from 68.8% the previous year.

The bankruptcy court judge in the United case plans to rule on United’s motion to void union contracts on January 10th. The IAM representing United Mechanics has questioned the necessity for pay cuts. According to reports in USA Today, United plans a new $50 million ad campaign in March. The campaign is said to include actual employees.

Northwest employees began paying 20% of their healthcare costs January 1. This will increase costs for family coverage by as much as $2000 per year. Northwest changed their policy on employee contributions as part of a cost cutting plan. Prior to January 1, Northwest employees did not pay for healthcare.

America West will begin selling food onboard flights on a trial basis. The airline will make available meals on flights over 2 ½ hours that will range from snack boxes to full dinners including Chicken Kiev. Prices will vary from $3 to $10.

For more industry news, please visit the “Airline Industry News” page of the APFA Web site.

That’s it for this week’s hotline. Please visit the APFA Web site for the latest information.