1.06.21 – APFA CLT Base Brief – February 2021 Allocations

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

February 2021 Allocations

Good Day CLT Flight Attendants,

We had our monthly call this week to discuss the trips for February. Keep in mind the recall of our furloughed Flight Attendants does not take effect until March. We still have the same staffing levels with only 12 people returning from leaves in February. The trips in February look very much like the trips in January with some small changes.

The staffing numbers are 1,269 available headcounts. We are set for 1,048 Lineholders and 221 Reserves. The good news is we have about 10,000 more manhours for February than we had in January. About 2,500 of these man hours are from RDU. Raleigh will not be operating as a base or satellite base until March, for February, RDU time will be absorbed into general Charlotte time. There is a schedule change on the 11th that will add time to the system and Charlotte (with 7 banks of flights) is poised to pick up the increase. With the reserve number dropping to 221 (17%), the rotation will go back to October of 1987. The line average has been lowered to 79.8, by lowering the line average more lines are created. There will be no VLOAs for February.

In a normal year, February would see a drop in flying. The fact that February has an increase is a sign that we are headed in the right direction. The Company has modified some of its plans for the spring but with the vaccine now being distributed, the summer looks optimistic and the Company is proceeding along those lines. LHR is still scheduled to run three days a week and an increase in frequency and other destinations are still in the works for April. No word yet on LHR for RDU.

The trip construction remains the same with multiple leg days, long sit time and shorter rest. Staffing levels and productivity are still driving this construction model. The differences are, there are few 4-leg days, other than the one days. The four-leg one days include a quick turn and a medium turn, and we have asked to cut the sit times in between these turns to make this type of one day bearable. The Company is maintaining a resistance of rig or synthetic time. This creates multiple leg days that pay hard time. Extending the duty days to the max and raising the connection or sit time to 3+45 allows them to put more flights into a duty day.

The trips break down as follows:

• One-day trips will make up 12% of our trips (decrease from January)
• Two-day trips will make up 39% of our trips (about the same)
• Three-day trips will make up 16% of our trips (increase)
• Four-day trips will make up about 9% of our trips (increase)
• ODANs came in at 7% of the trips (decrease)
• Clean red eyes come in at 5% of the trips (big increase, but there are only a few)
• There are no clean pink eyes or bullets for February.
• 2/3 days are up to 9% of our trips with 30-hour layovers in SDQ CLE PWM STL MSY MIA YYZ BNA MYR GRR SAV BDL CMH SEA PDX IAH SJC
• 3/4 days remain at 3%

 

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NIPD flying is still mixed with departures from different cities. Layovers include MEX SJU AUA SAL SDQ UIO CUN CZM. Most of these layovers are short in nature and remember to check your tablets for restrictions while on an international layover. Many of these countries have rules that don’t allow our crews to have an overnight, but many are starting to relax these rules.

The majority of the behind the clock flying (red eyes) have been built into the 3-day sequences. We are pushing for this flying to be built as stand-alone trips in the form of pink eyes and red eyes. We always advocate for Niche flying because it provides variety and flexibility to the trips. When you are flying consistent lines of trips with the same types of departures, it is easier to adjust your internal body clocks and improves safety. We are hoping more variety will come back as we add time to the schedule in the coming months.

We saw more 3+ hour sits as connection times in CLT, DFW, and MIA. With more banks of flights in DFW and CLT the time you can sit between flights and still have another chance to add flying later in the day increases. This is the major driver in sit times in these cities with the idea to add hard time to the trip and reduce the synthetic time.

Only about half of the four days were commutable on both ends. We have asked for
commutability to be added back into the four days. This will push the number of four days down and hopefully create more two and three days. Some of the four days did not look bad, there are some good ones in there and are worth looking at.

The two days remained strong and we cautioned on having all of them as early departures with late arrivals. This makes it difficult to fly back-to-back trips. There are some two days with late morning departures that still are workable for this, but we asked for later departure times moving forward.

ODANs are down from January and the Company maintains they are not manipulating the constraints on ODANs. The computer pushes ODANs in different directions from month to month based on the constraints they add to the construction of the other trip types. We are watching the ODAN numbers looking for the right mix to the schedule.

2020-2021 vacation buyback for payout on the June 15th paycheck opens on January 8th and closes on January 15th. The bidding timeline for February is:

We are waiting on details from the Company when and where the vaccine will be available to our employees in North Carolina. With this development, we remain optimistic that 2021 will be a positive year in getting our industry and airline back to normal. Trip construction and scheduling will be key factors in improving our personal and professional lives moving forward.

Your Charlotte reps are available for you through this difficult time. Our local number is 704-665-7474.

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

In Solidarity,

Scott Hazlewood
APFA CLT Base President
[email protected]