9.19.23 – APFA DFW Base Brief – October 2023 Staffing and Allocations

October 2023 Staffing and Allocations

Information is Preliminary and Subject to Change

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Manning Information:

• Total Headcount: 7,097
• Available Headcount: 6,586
• Lineholders: 5,295
• Reserves: 1,291 (19.6%)
• System Reserve: 18.5%
• Initial Reserve Seniority: 19359 (08JAN18)
• Vacancy Transfers Reporting 01OCT: 83 (NH 25)
• New Hires Report to DFW in OCT: 53
• Expected Open Line Average: 81.2 hours
• Expected System Line Average: 81.0 hours

Important Timelines:

Schedule Highlights:

Key Dates

• Schedule Change: Thursday, October 05
• IATA Season Change Date : Sunday, October 29
• Contractual Month: Sunday, October 1 through Tuesday, October 31

Holidays/Special Events

• Albuquerque Ballon Fiesta (ABQ): Added frequencies and up-gauged equipment
• from DFW, LAX & PHX 10/6 and 10/16.
• Furniture Market Expo (GSO): Added frequencies and up-gauged equipment from
• DFW, PHX & PHL 10/12-10/18.
• Austin Formula 1 Race (AUS): Up-gauged equipment 10/19-10/23.
• Dia De Los Muertos (DFW): Added Frequency to OAX, QRO, TRC 10/26-10/28.
• College Football Game Day Flying: Added capacity to accommodate increase in demand. A full list of game day cities/dates can be found in the October PBS Cover Sheet.
• Charter Flying opportunities will be available for October in PBS.

Bank Structure

• DFW will operate nine (9) banks in October with bank 9 cancellations on Saturdays.
• Halloween Bank Adjustments/Cancellations:
• Saturday, 10/28: B8 cancellation B9 addition.
• Sunday, 10/29: B1 cancellation.
• Monday, 10/30: B9 cancellation.
• Tuesday, 10/31: B9 cancellation B1 and B9 additions.

Allocations Information:

October pairings are similar to September; the schedule change on October 05 brings minor changes. The IATA season change on October 29 will have more of an impact on November’s schedule since it is at the end of the month. IPD hours have decreased by 6% since September’s pull down in flying.

ODANs have increased for October; we realize that many Flight Attendants enjoy the flexibility of these pairings. We will monitor open time to see if 70 sequence starts per day is excessive for the base and ask for an adjustment for November if needed.

We also addressed the number of four-day trips working 12 legs in total. While the number of trips is in the single digits, we have made it known to the allocations department that these trips are undesirable and problematic. We asked for modifications and improvements for these pairings.

We did see some improvements in the 3FA solution, with FAs staying on the same aircraft more often, thus resulting in less sit/connect times. The base emphasizes productivity in trip construction, resulting in working fewer days for the same number of hours.

DFW will operate nine banks for October, with bank nine canceling on Saturdays. This is an improvement from prior months, as we had a pull-down in flying on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The company has scheduled an extensive Halloween bank adjustment/cancellation package for Saturday, October 28, through Tuesday, October 31.

This month we are going to elaborate about some the variables that affect those reserve numbers with a further explanation on RESERVE DRIVERS. In last month’s letter we opened with the following:

While none of these items are absolute there are a few heavier weighted issues that affect headcount on RSV. It is important to understand from the get-go your union leadership meets regularly with these departments and advocates for DFW fighting for reductions of FAs on RSV. We will discuss the company’s dependency on and with the high headcount and their reasoning.

This isn’t something we see eye to eye on and the monthly fight for an acceptable solution continues. We do credit their willingness to discuss and evaluate our suggestions regularly, of which there has been some consensus however all solutions must still conform to the current JCBA. We are well aware of poor trip construction and other quality of work life issues that impact your career we are here to help.

Below is now an expanded explanation of some variables.

Individual drivers of reserve usage change on a regular basis and they affect each base differently. The following key drivers are listed however they are not in any order of importance nor are they the only ones as others could influence a particular monthly solution. Historical data is used from month to month, year over year, and even further back depending on the driver being weighed.

• Weather/IROPS/ATC
• Sick calls
• Legalities
• Leaves/Emergency Off
• Open Time Build
• Unscheduled Aircraft out of Service
• Operational Dependency

Let us touch upon a number of these briefly.

Weather
We all know its unpredictable but historically we know patterns exist. Snowstorms in winter (ex. BOS and ORD), hurricane season in the south (MIA), summertime thunderstorms more prevalent east of the Rockies (DFW for sure) and these are just to name a few. However, you can see from this data the weather driver would affect some more than others based on location, time of the year, and longtime weather history.

ATC
Think about slot-controlled airports like DCA and LGA.

Sick Calls
Hopefully this is fairly self-explanatory, but it is worth mentioning. In DFW, we have been consistently running at or below the system average in the case of both line holders and reserves. DFW continues to show month after month we have remained readily available to the company, and we demand to see this driver influence our numbers more than it currently contributes to the equation. The company has eliminated or greatly reduced data from 2020 and 2021 since the COVID crisis skewed things out of the normal parameters and we were happy with the company to remove this information in mid-2022.

Operational Need
This is where we get dinged the hardest on our numbers. DFW is a MEGA hub and on average handles 40% of the daily flying passing through our hub. CLT is in a similar situation, coming in second in the high 30’s.  Using September as an example, there are 95,500 mainline flights of which 31,100 touch DFW (33% of all flights) and 22,000 touch CLT (22% of all flights). September is also a pull-down month, so during higher seasons like summer and holidays, these figures increase dramatically. The company deems it necessary to cover all short falls or issues that arise from other bases due to our sheer size and geographical location. We see both line holder usage thru UBL and excessive RSV usage because of broken pairings from within base as well as out of base crew flying.

While we insist numbers caused by this driver could still be brought down, the company is unwilling to take this step for fear of limiting themselves with a controllable rescue to a singular or system breakdown. In other words, the DFW RSV list is an extension of the entire system as a safety net. Rest assured though we continue to meet with the departments affecting this and work towards a solution that benefits your quality of work life. There is progress albeit slow.

We hope this helps answer your questions and please let us know if you have further questions.

DFW received 385,333 block hours for October, an increase of 5,986 hours from September. STL satellite has 4,413 hours whereas AUS will have 1,594 hours for October.

3FA and 4FA Sequence Durations:

• 1-Day: 28.5%
• 2-Day: 38.3%
• 3-Day: 29.2%
• 4-Day: 4.0%

3FA and 4FA Overnight Rest Distribution:

• Overnight Rest 11-12 hrs: 4.5%
• Overnight Rest 12-14 hrs: 33.9%
• Overnight Rest 14-16 hrs: 24.9%
• Overnight Rest 16-24 hrs: 32.9%
• Overnight Rest 24-34 hrs: 3.6%

3FA & 4FA Productivity:

• Credit Hours per Calendar Day: 5:08 hrs.
• Schedule Block Hours per Calendar Day: 4:44 hrs.
• Credit Hours per Duty Period: 5.36 hrs.

3FA & 4FA Sit Times:

• 2 Hours: 19.8%
• 2.5 Hours: 9.8%
• 3 Hours: 2.2%

3FA & 4FA Leg Distribution:

• 1-Leg: 31.5%
• 2-Leg: 48.2%
• 3-Leg: 20.0%
• 4-Legs: 0.2%

3FA & 4FA Duty Distribution:
Duty length is calculated including sign-in and release time.

• 3 hours or less of duty: 0.6%
• 3 to 4 hours of duty: 7.5%
• 4 to 5 hours of duty: 16.5%
• 5 to 6 hours of duty: 6.5%
• 6 to 7 hours of duty: 3.1%
• 7 to 8 hours of duty: 9.0%
• 8 to 9 hours of duty: 14.5%
• 9 to 10 hours of duty: 13.0%
• 10 to 11 hours of duty: 12.4%
• 11 to 12 hours of duty: 13.7%
• Greater than 12 hours: 3.1%

3FA & 4FA Block Distribution:

• 3 hours or less: 14.2%
• 3 to 4 hours: 18.7%
• 4 to 5 hours: 11.8%
• 5 to 6 hours: 17.8%
• 6 to 7 hours: 18.2%
• 7 to 8 hours: 14.1%
• 8 to 9 hours: 4.8%
• 9 hours or greater: 0.4%

DFW Combined Operation Percentage of Sequences:
All equipment all positions.

• 1-Day: 23.7%
• 2-Day: 32.8%
• 3-Day: 37.0%
• 4-Day: 5.2%
• 5-Day: 1.2%
• 6-Day: 0.1%

Designated email for Allocations and Manning questions and concerns:
[email protected]

Amber De Roxtra
APFA DFW Base President
[email protected]
(682) 422-7179

Amy Green
APFA DFW Base Vice President
[email protected]
(972) 696-9766