8.04.22 – APFA ORD Base Brief – September 2022 Staffing And Allocations

Thursday, August 4, 2022

September 2022 Staffing and Allocations

Hello Chicago. We hope you are enjoying summer as much as you can!

The September Staffing and Allocation calls were held this week. APFA continues to challenge the company rational used to produce staffing numbers (Lineholders, total Reserve %, target line average) and we see no changes. We continue to use their own data to poke holes in their plan, yet we see no changes.

The Company compares year over year numbers. We believe the 4% year over year increase in the number of Reserves is a dramatic overcorrection compared to September 2021.

It was also pointed out on the call that the PBS Summary we all see tells us something. When most bases have a double constraint for minimum hours (forcing more hours on Flight Attendant schedules than they want) there is a problem. Clearly the company is not listening.

APFA is asking for a meeting after a month is over to look at how all the pieces of the puzzle (staffing numbers, allocations, PBS results, open time, absenteeism, Reserve utilization, etc.) fit together and how do we get a better outcome in the months that follow. The Company has to stop working in silos and realize all these factors impact each other.

Staffing

The systemwide reserve percentage is 20.8%. ORD reserve is slightly lower than the system: 433 reserves at 20.2%. We feel this Reserve number is again much higher than necessary.

The expected line average at PBS open is 81.5. The systemwide average is 81.3. This number is consistent with the August line average; however, September has more vacation time contributing to the overall hours.

Allocations

September flying is similar to August. There is a very slight decrease in flying towards the end of the month, due to the end of summer pulldown which happens every year.

The number of trips with sit-times exceeding 3 hours showed a slight uptick in September. This was attributed to there being flights that operate only one time, throwing a wrench on how trips were constructed. Hopefully the sit-times will continue to improve in future months.

The number of ODAN decreased slightly at all bases; September has 10.20 starts per day vs August has 15.33 starts per day.  We will monitor this number as it is slightly lower than the past 3 months.

Trip Construction1-day: 24% in September vs 25% in August
2-day: 27% in September vs 26% in August
3-day: 45% in September vs 45% in August
4-day: 4% in September vs 4% in August

PBS Preliminary Manning Plan

Please be kind to one another! Stay safe.

In Solidarity,

Susan Wroble
APFA ORD Base President
(630) 802-2268
[email protected]

Dray Howard
APFA ORD Base Vice President
(630) 215-8410
[email protected]

Justin Patterson
APFA ORD Base Council Representative
(509) 720-0067
[email protected]