3.05.24 – APFA CLT Base Brief – April 2024 Staffing and Allocations

April 2024 CLT Staffing and Allocations

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

On Sunday, we had our monthly meeting with the company to discuss the trips for April. As expected, April will see a large increase in hours. This will be the most flying we have seen in years and will continue through the summer. Our flight hours will be 175,381. By comparison, last July had a full schedule, and we peaked at just over 170,000 hours. The only other increase we will see is the IPD flight to Paris in May, as the airport is operating at capacity for gates, flight banks, personnel, and airspace.

We will be running nine banks with some trimming on the last bank on Tuesday and the first bank on Wednesday. Short of adding a midnight bank of flights, there is no wiggle room to expand the operation here.
If you remember last June and Thanksgiving in November, when they put in extra flying, the operation did not run so well. With the airport construction continuing and a history of poor planning, we expect a few hiccups as we enter the summer early. If you encounter problems, document, document, document. We have seen way too many examples of Inflight putting their logistic problems on the employees.

Our Reserve numbers continue to remain high, even with the addition of new hires. Our staffing is still short, so putting more duty time and legs into the trips is the solution. With a large amount of vacation only available at the end of the vacation year, April has much more vacation than a typical summer month, which is a good example of poor planning around the actual schedule. The high Reserve numbers we have had for months now are to cover a fragile trip construction model. We have asked for a break on the high numbers, but this is how they have decided to protect their schedule, with more Reserves. These high numbers will continue throughout the summer, and Reserve rotation will remain as it has been for months. Our Reserve numbers are set for 699, with new hires or 22.9%. The system average of all the bases is 18.8%. The Reserve cut-off will be March 27, 2017.

We have about 10% more time for April, and our staffing is weak to cover it. Traditionally, April is a swing month as they begin a spring ramp-up in flying leading into the summer. For Charlotte, the summer has arrived. Our IPD has nine flights. The 10th IPD is Paris, which will be added in May. RDU will have its London flight and a 1-day DFW turn that operates once. When there is abundant time in the system, the optimizer naturally tends to build the extra time into 4-day trips. This is true of April. There were fewer niche trips such as red eyes, ODANs, pink eyes, all-night turns (Bullets), and more four-day and 30-hour layovers. They have tried to build more time into the trips, which can be seen with 25% of the one-day being four-leggers and more four-leg days built into the traditional trips. The sit times of more than three hours were cut, but the sit time of 2+30 hours has increased. 74% of the four days are not commutable on one end or another. Do more with less.

Our trips break down as:

• 1-days will make up 23%
• 2-days will make up 20%
• 3-days will make up 29%
• 4-days will make up 5%
• 2/3-days will make up 13%
• 3/4-days will make up 2%
• ODANs will make up 6%
• Red Eyes will make up 1%
• Pink Eyes, and Bullets are cut to below 1%

The one days remain strong, but the number of 4 leggers has increased. The island turns are returning to full swing, but many of these turns are incorporated into 2- and 3-day trips rather than standalone 1-day trips.

The two days are also strong, but this is where we see more multileg days being built. One of the issues with the two days is the early departure times. This makes it difficult to pick up back-to-back trips because of the required home base rest.

The 3-day trips have the most sit time. This is where the most time is packed into a trip.

There are usually more ODANs when we have full banks of flights. When the optimizer was running, it was making many ODANs, as expected, with a fuller schedule. They tweaked the system to force a lower amount of ODANs. April is the lowest month for ODANs since before COVID-19. We are seeing more 2/3 days with 28–30-hour layovers in cities that would traditionally be ODAN cities.

The Red Eyes, Pink Eyes, and Bullets took a significant hit for April. This will solve some problems with open time constraints, but for those who like these trips, there are significantly fewer of them.

With an anticipated full schedule for at least the next five months, we doubt there will be many changes to the trips. This is how they have decided to solve their staffing problem, and it creates the most productive trips it can.

Our planned Reserve numbers are still not being aligned with the usage numbers. The chart breaks down the usage for February. Once again, we are putting extra Reserves on to cover the first day of the month, when there is a huge spike in trips, and the last few days of the month as an unnecessary precaution.

The chart shows the planned reserves, the number of daily trips, and the actual usage each day. For a company with millions of dollars in computer systems, there has to be a better plan that allows Reserves to break guarantee and earn a livable wage.

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April 2024 Bidding Timelines

PBS update: The company sent out a CCI regarding the Prefer/Avoid Aircraft properties in the Standing Bid tab. Aircraft that are no longer in the fleet have been removed and new aircraft will be added as they enter service (e.g. A321N, A321XLR, 787-9P, etc.). As a result, any standing bids for Prefer or Avoid aircraft have been cleared. You should update your Standing Bid if you want to include the Prefer/Avoid Aircraft properties

We will be getting more new hires in April and welcome our first new hire class of the year this week. We desperately need the staffing, as the transfer process seems to end with us losing more than we gain. Please welcome the new hires if you run into them.

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• A321N Differences
• Operational Reliability
• Collaborative De-escalation
• Data Privacy Training and Privacy Policy Acknowledgement
• What is Personal Data?
• Data Disposal
• Keeping American Secure – Insider Threat

WBT Deadline: Monday, March 11 @ 11:59 pm (CT)
Don’t wait until the last minute and put yourself in jeopardy for possible discipline.

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We are in a crucial time for our contract negotiations. Please show management that We Are Ready for a new contract and ready for some positive changes. Wear your lanyards, T-shirts, and pins, and display your bag tags. Tell the company WE ARE READY FOR CHANGE!

Take care of yourselves and each other.

The Charlotte APFA Team

In Solidarity,

Scott Hazlewood
APFA CLT Base President
[email protected]