1.08.24 – APFA DFW Base Brief- February 2024 Staffing and Allocations

Holidays/Special Events

• Valentine’s Day: Wednesday, February 14.
• Super Bowl (LAS): Sunday, February 11. Added frequencies/capacity and equipment upgrades starting on 08FEB-13FEB for expected Super Bowl demand. Added trips for JFK/CLT/ DFW/LAX/MIA/ORD/PHL/PHX.
• NASCAR Daytona 500: Sunday, February 18. Added capacity 12FEB-19FEB from CLT/DCA/DFW.
• Presidents’ Day: Monday, February 19. Added capacity to Florida 17FEB-19FEB.
• Widebody Up-Gauges: DFW/JFK/LAX/MIA/ORD/PHL will see an increase in Domestic WBD deployments. BOS/LAS/MCO/SJU will see widebody operations across the schedule period.

Bank Structure 

• DFW will operate nine (9) banks in February with B1 & B9 cancellations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday the first half of the month.
• Presidents’ Day Bank Adjustment: Saturday, 17 February. B9 cancels.

Allocations Information: February is considered an off-season/shoulder month as it falls after the winter holiday peak and before the operational ramp-up for spring break. The schedule change is in the middle of the month on February 15, basically splitting the month in half. DFW will have flight/bank cancellations during the first half of the month on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The second half of the month incorporates the Presidents’ Day Holiday and additional flying is added to the operation for various special events.

Even with February being off-season, the operation is bigger this year. And due to a leap year, February is a 31-day month, which increases block hours. DFW block hours will increase by over 9,000 hours next month compared to January. The base has seen a 12.1% increase in block hours year-over-year.

Crew planning collects monthly performance data to determine staffing levels. Due to Flight Attendant reliability and absenteeism improvements, reserve numbers have slowly decreased. February reserve percentages decreased 3.5% month-over-month and 0.7% year-over-year. For January, fewer Flight Attendants were required to serve reserve, with a monthly decrease of 1.6% and a YOY decrease of 4.1%.

Line averages have remained primarily flat over the past two months. However, base leadership’s goal is to decrease line averages, eliminating the need for minimum and maximum line holder constraints in PBS awards. If we continue the positive trend in FA performance, this goal may be achieved by increasing line holders and decreasing reserves.

Trip construction remained primarily unchanged from January. Network Planning is sporadically pulling down some IPD flying and temporarily shifting widebody equipment to the domestic operation. DFW fared better than some bases, with an increase of 7,847 IPD block hours. We’ve asked the Allocations Department to inform us about any future changes or adjustments to International flying. We don’t anticipate this, but we will let the base know as needed. Barcelona makes a limited appearance, operating nine times at the end of the month before daily service starts in April.

The issues we addressed with Crew Allocations are similar to those presented last month. We saw a slight improvement in domestic widebody flying but would still like our daily 1-1 two-day trip to return. High-time turns, commutable trips, reasonable number of legs per day, lengthy sit times, and trip durations (more two-day and fewer three-day pairings) were items we identified as needing programming adjustments to improve flexibility and Flight Attendant quality of life.

DFW received 396,676 block hours for February, an increase of 9,152 hours from January. STL satellite has 4,455 hours, whereas AUS will have 1,569 hours for February.

3FA and 4FA Sequence Durations:

1-Day: 31.6%
2-Day: 30.3%
3-Day: 33.9%
4-Day: 4.2%

3FA and 4FA Overnight Rest Distribution: 

Overnight Rest 11-12 hrs: 4.8%
Overnight Rest 12-14 hrs: 25.8%
Overnight Rest 14-16 hrs: 25.8%
Overnight Rest 16-24 hrs: 33.9%
Overnight Rest 24-34 hrs: 9.5%
Overnight Rest Greater than 34 hrs: 0.2%

3FA & 4FA Productivity: 

Credit Hours per Calendar Day: 4:59 hrs.
Schedule Block Hours per Calendar Day: 4:25 hrs.
Credit Hours per Duty Period: 5.31 hrs.

3FA & 4FA Sit Times: 

2 Hours: 19.2%
2.5 Hours: 10.0%
3 Hours: 2.4%

3FA & 4FA Leg Distribution: 

1-Leg: 35.1%
2-Leg: 46.4%
3-Leg: 17.9%
4-Legs: 0.6%

3FA & 4FA Duty Distribution:

Duty length is calculated including sign-in and release time. 
3 hours or less of duty: 1.4%
3 to 4 hours of duty: 9.7%
4 to 5 hours of duty: 16.6%
5 to 6 hours of duty: 7.9%
6 to 7 hours of duty: 4.2%
7 to 8 hours of duty: 9.0%
8 to 9 hours of duty: 14.5%
9 to 10 hours of duty: 12.2%
10 to 11 hours of duty: 10.8%
11 to 12 hours of duty: 12.4%
Greater than 12 hours: 1.4%

3FA & 4FA Block Distribution: 

3 hours or less: 19.4%
3 to 4 hours: 18.0%
4 to 5 hours: 12.4%
5 to 6 hours: 18.4%
6 to 7 hours: 16.3%
7 to 8 hours: 12.0%
8 to 9 hours: 3.5%
9 hours or greater: 0.2%

DFW Combined Operation Percentage of Sequences: 

All equipment all positions.
1-Day: 27.1%
2-Day: 24.8%
3-Day: 41.4%
4-Day: 7.0%

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

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

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