10.06.22 – APFA CLT Base Brief – November 2022 Staffing and Allocations

Thursday, October 6, 2022

November 2022 Staffing and Allocations

Good day,

We had our monthly call with the company to discuss the schedule for November. Since we have moved into a winter schedule, there were the big changes to IPD and some of the leisure destinations, but the basics of our schedule and how the trips are constructed have not changed. November has the Thanksgiving holiday, and this led to the usual schedule changes we see every year for this holiday. Charlotte actually picked up about 13% more trips, but only showed a small increase in manhours. This is due to the loss of three IPD flights- a daily widebody to Europe will account for about 5,000-man hours for the month; simply adding a narrow body to a domestic flight may be a few hundred hours. In other words, we are getting more flights in November, and we are growing.

Our headcount is also growing. We will be welcoming new hires in October through the end of the year. Our initial numbers break down as:

• Total active headcount – 2,716 (2,675 for Oct)
• Lineholders- 2,230 (2,141 for Oct)
• Reserves- 485 or 17.9% (Oct had 534 or 20%)
• Targeted Line Average- 80.4 (about the same)

We will see schedule changes on the 3rd, 7th, and 30th. You will also see an increase to maximize all banks of flights on both the 22nd and 23rd (the day or two before Thanksgiving) and the 26th and 27th (Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving). Thursday the 24th is Thanksgiving, and there will be a pulldown on that day with several banks of flights not running. This happens every year, and where we traditionally see 30-hour layovers. If you have to work, you may find a layover that can give you a full day with some relatives.

Schedule changes mean new aircraft routings and present challenges to network planning. This is why you can find some non-normal trips at various times during the month. Looking at the four IPD flights we have in November, Munich has a 5-day trip on the 6th, Frankfurt has a 4-day trip on the 12th, Munich has another 4-day trip on the 15th, and LHR has a 4-day trip on the 22nd. Those are the easy ones to spot. If you take a good look through the trips for the entire month, you can find some of the odd trips that only run once. With 2/3 and 3/4 days making up 11% of the trips, there are some gems tucked away, and there are also some stinkers.

With the schedule changes, we will be running only four IPD flights- LHR (early and late), MUC, and Frankfurt. RDU will see a suspension of their LHR flight, with the last one departing on the 16th and starting up again on the 28th. There will only be a RDU-CUN turn to substitute, and it only runs once a week.

Our trip distribution will be:

• 1-days will make up 19% of our trips – down from 25% in October.
• 2-days will make up 31% of our trips- up from 28% in October.
• 3-days will make up 21% of our trips – up from 19% in October.
• 4-days will make up 3.8% of our trips – slightly up.
• 2/3 days will make up 8% of our trips –slightly down.
• 3/4 days will make up 3% of our trips – about the same.
• ODANs will make up 7% of the trips – the same percentage but there are more of them.
• Red-eyes will make up almost 5% of our trips- up from 3% in October.
• Pink-eyes and bullets are still less than 1% but there are new cities.

The largest shift was from the 1-days shifting to the two and 3-days. There were seasonable changes to the frequency of some of the islands; this cuts the 1-days every year. The result is more-days that are four leggers. This is done to try and keep the number of 1-days consistent. Network Planning does this by setting goals and constraints on the optimizer that pushes the computer to build certain types of trips. When you have a holiday month with several scheduling challenges, the result is shifting trip distribution- one of the many challenges of planning the network.

Our niche trips, ODANs, reds, pinks, and bullets all looked strong, with a good spike in traditional red eyes. Many of these have a turn at the front, but the two legs to get home are nearly eliminated. Look for seasonal charters for special events and college and professional football.

The usual problems still exist, long sit times are still there, and the 4-days have not improved with commutability. The 4-leg days are still built into long trips, and the long sits are still in the 4-leg days. The departure times for the 2-days are not as staggered as we would like. With commuting being a nightmare, more and more FAs are flying back-to-back trips. It’s hard to do if all the departure times are early morning.

The reserve numbers are a lot better. 17.9% will put the cutoff for reserve at February 2020. We generally don’t have a problem with coverage in November, barring weather events, and we have a new, untested incentive program. The addition of new hires towards the end of this month should provide some relief to the end of the month woes on coverage.

The bidding timeline will be:

Charlotte remains a strong hub for American and it is reflected in our schedule. There are many challenges we still want addressed, but the network is here for Charlotte.

Take care of yourselves and each other,

The Charlotte APFA Team

In Solidarity,

Scott Hazlewood
APFA CLT Base President
[email protected]