12.22.05 – (LAA) – Banned-Items List, Furloughs, Bankruptcy List, Industry Watch, Fuel Watch

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Thursday, December 22, 2005. Please keep our 13 members serving full time in the armed forces and our 4,084 furloughed flight attendants in your thoughts – especially during this Holiday Season.

The TSA’s newly relaxed rules for allowing scissors, screwdrivers and other potential weapons on board the aircraft went into effect this week. There will be a coalition of all Flight Attendants representing airlines across the nation, meeting in Washington, D.C., in January to address this egregious action by the TSA. This issue is far from over! Clearly, the Flight Attendant Unions around the nation have lost confidence in the TSA’s decision-making process as it relates to cabin safety issues. Please go to www.apfa.org and click on the link entitled: Contact Your Congressperson About Weapons In The Cabin and let your representative know how you feel.

APFA News : There has been concern from some JFK Flight Attendants regarding the seasonal loss of one of the two-day London trips. The loss of this trip is a result of several factors. The primary factor is the poor arrival performance of flights to/from London during the winter months, including the time it takes to de-ice the aircraft on both sides of the pond. This, coupled with the new minimum rest requirement of 10-hours leaves the 100/107 trip with an insufficient buffer while the longer winter flying times are in place. Based on the planned spring ’06 schedule the company anticipates this pairing should return in April. The Company has committed to further look at the block performance of these flights to see if the two-day pairing could return earlier without impacting the dependability of the flights departing LHR.

From the Scheduling Department: Please note that if you have a Schedule Conflict at the beginning of the month, you can TTOT the schedule conflict trip with no regard to the lights. A Flight Attendant may exercise this option up to 72 hours prior to the next month, when the Company automatically removes the schedule-conflict trip sequence.

Also, if you are interested in Option II, Limited Option II, or Opposite Division Option II flying, these will be open for the remainder of December and through the 5th of January. Please reference the Domestic/International Option II and International/Domestic Option II links from the Scheduling Department page for the procedures to request Opposite Division Option II flying.

As a reminder, uniform points do not carry over from one year to the next. The last opportunity to place an order by phone is 3pm Central Time on Friday, December 30. Although the Uniform Solutions Web site will take orders until 2359 on December 31, please do not wait until the last minute as the site serves several workgroups and the server can be slow when encumbered.

As we announced on last week’s Hotline, the APFA/AA Base Briefings will begin in January and all Flight Attendants are encouraged to attend. AA will be compensating each Flight Attendant who attends with three hours of Special Assignment Pay. Dates and cities are as follows: 1/10 – STL; 1/11 – ORD; 1/13 – DFW; 1/17 – DCA; 1/18 – MIA; 1/24 – NY; 1/30 – SFO; 1/31 – LAX; 2/8 – BOS; and 2/9 – RDU. Exact times and locations will be available on the APFA Web site at www.www.apfa.org as soon as they are finalized.

And finally, A retirement seminar for Flight Attendants will be held in RDU on January 12, 2006 from 4 – 5:30 PM in the Kitty Hawk meeting room. Presenting information on retiree health, travel and pension benefits will be AA retirement counselor Karyn Mally and APFA retirement specialist Jill Frank Smoak. Flight attendants from all bases are welcome; please notify APFA Chairperson Peggy Turley at [email protected] if you plan to attend. Please print a personal pension estimate from JETNET and bring with you to the seminar.

Bankruptcy Watch : The United Airlines creditors have cast their votes on whether to accept the airline’s reorganization proposal. The tally will be announced on December 30th. United hopes to emerge from bankruptcy in February of ’06 after more than three years under the protection of the bankruptcy umbrella.

The Bankruptcy Judge overseeing Delta’s proceedings has granted Delta permission to enter into new fuel-hedging agreements as well as reject the lease on a hangar at DFW. The hedging will enable the airline to protect itself from rising jet fuel costs.

Fuel Watch : The crack-spread price was all over the place this week, and as of December 21, 2005, the price to refine one barrel of jet fuel was all the way up to $14.56. The day before it was exactly $5 less. As of December 21, the price of a barrel of crude was down more than $2 from last week’s report price at $58.56 bringing the total price for a barrel of refined jet fuel to to $73.12. This price is down a bit from last week’s price.

APFA wishes each and every member a safe and happy holiday season. APFA HDQ will be closed on Friday the 23rd and Monday the 26th in honor of the holiday. However, if you have an emergency, please call 817-540-0108 and follow the prompts for the Officer-On-Duty.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for calling the APFA Hotline.