8.25.20 – A Message from Your APFA Leadership

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

A Message from Your APFA Leadership

Today, American announced an involuntary furlough of 8,099 Flight Attendants across the system. This overage is much higher than originally communicated to APFA by the Company.

While many of our members have participated in early retirements and leaves of various lengths, industry projections continue to show business and leisure travel returning much slower than expected. As a result, the Company anticipates a staffing overage that is not sustainable for the near future.

While the industry looked to be on an upswing at the beginning of July, the pandemic strengthened, and major cities once again found themselves locked down. We experienced large scale, last minute flight cancellations, and we continue to see pulldowns much larger than expected into the fall and beyond. Never have we seen such a massive extended pulldown of both international and domestic flying. We continue to navigate these uncharted waters, with news changing daily.

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked to mitigate any potential staffing overage. Through the passage of the CARES Act and the Payroll Support Program (PSP), we were able to keep all of us connected to our pay and benefits through September.

Where do we go from here? The number one goal for all employees at American is the passage of a clean extension of the Payroll Support Program to avoid involuntary furloughs through March of next year. We know that APFA members have made thousands of calls to Representatives across the country, and we need to keep up the pressure. Everyone at APFA, led by our Government Affairs department, will continue this fight to keep all of us on the job.

The message to our government leaders is clear: Further destabilization of the airline industry and its employees will only hamper our broader economic recovery. Congress must keep frontline aviation worker employment a top priority. Aviation has always been a cornerstone of any economic recovery, and that recovery can only happen if credentialed aviation employees are ready to work as demand returns.

Today’s news is discouraging, and it might seem like all of our work on Capitol Hill is for naught. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our calls moved Congressional Representatives on both sides of the aisle to support an extension of the PSP, and that happened because of your persistence. Now, we need to continue to push Congress to produce a stimulus bill.

Please stay connected and be sure that both APFA and American Airlines have your updated contact information. As the painful realities of the worldwide pandemic continue to impact our workgroup, we will be here every step of the way to offer you support and guidance.

In Solidarity,

Your APFA National Officers and APFA Board of Directors