8.09.20 – APFA CLT Base Brief – September Allocations

Sunday, August 9, 2020

September 2020 Allocations

Good Day CLT Flight Attendants,

Last week, we had our monthly call with the Company to look at the trips and staffing for September. Here is the breakdown:

The actual number of Reserves in CLT has dropped from August (26%) to September (19.4%). While we are pleased with the reduction, Charlotte still has higher Reserve numbers than the other larger bases. The Company is using metrics from last year to determine our numbers for this year (last year, we also had about 19% of the base slated for reserve). We pointed out that the nature and makeup of our base have changed. Traditionally, Charlotte has been a lower flying base. In the last few months, we have shifted to very little open time available with Lineholders eating up the open time. This leaves very little flying for the Reserves. We believe it places them at a disadvantage to earn income, when the numbers are set too high.

We will see the number of Reserves drop during the PBS process and anticipate the actual number to be around 200. There will always be a certain amount of Flight Attendants who will bid down to Reserve. It is important to utilize the LRD tool to make your selection. The LRD tool closes on the 11th at Noon (CDT). The Company has indicated that they will be assigning 777 training to Reserves on duty in September.

Charlotte saw about a 9% reduction in the actual number of trips compared to August. This is due mainly to standard seasonal reductions. We did not lose any cities. What we lost was frequency. The drop can be seen after the holiday is over with a schedule change on the 9th. Our total man-hours dropped from 65,938 hours in August to 61,822 hours in September.

There is a slight shift in the time from 3-day trips to 2-day trips in order to build more 1-day trips. Our trips break down are as follows:

There are 4-day trips. ODANs remain at 4% of the trips. Red-eyes saw a slight increase to 12 actual trips. Pink-eyes and bullets saw about four trips total.

The distribution of trips is starting to show more variety as the schedule will allow. We did see some two and three days with 30-hour sits in Toronto and Providence. We saw a reduction in the number and length of productivity breaks. Most of the 3-days trips are commutable.  There is still a variety of 2-days with early and late departures, making it easier to schedule them back to back.

Overall, the trips looked very much like the trips we have seen in July and August. There are some gems in there, and there are some dogs. The system still allows 13.5% synthetic time (Rig or soft time) system-wide, and this would have been unprecedented in the pre-COVID-19 world.

The biggest question we all have is, “how long will this type of trip construction continue?”

The primary factor in answering this question is whether the Payroll Support Program (PSP) extension passes.

If this extension is signed and there are no furloughs, we may see these trips continue and change only as the schedule changes.

If the extension does not pass, the Company has said they will go forward with furloughs and overhaul the trip construction process to capture maximum productivity.

Manpower and Planning will begin building trips for October around August 24th, so we should know the outcome of the vote before this date. We encourage everyone to drop a note or call their Senators, urging them to support an extension. Click here to find a list of congressional contacts.

While September should be more stable than we have seen in the last few months, our industry is still facing an uncertain future. Your Charlotte APFA team has been amazed at the resiliency of our members, and it has been an honor to represent you during these tough times. We are here for you, reach out to your local reps at 704-665-7474.

Take care of each other and stay safe. ~ The Charlotte APFA Team

In Solidarity,

Scott Hazlewood
APFA CLT Base President
[email protected]