8.05.24 – APFA CLT Base Brief – September 2024 Staffing and Allocations

September 2024 Staffing and Allocations

Monday, August 5, 2024

On Saturday, we had our monthly call with the company to discuss the trips for September. The system will pull down for the fall and there is a reduction in banks similar to what we have seen in the past. After the Labor Day holiday, we will have a schedule reduction systemwide as we head into the fall schedule. Charlotte will see a reduction of almost 10,000 hours. Our only big losses are from the loss of banks and Paris will stop on the second. Charlotte will continue to see a variety of trips. This pull down will result in a lower line average of 77.7 hours, fewer reserves and the company will offer unpaid Voluntary Leaves of Absences for September. Charlotte will be offering 115 VLOAs. We have not seen VLOAs for a while, so as a reminder, this is based on seniority and provides a Flight Attendant the opportunity to have the entire month off. Other than pay, there are no losses to taking a VLOA and this will not affect anything associated with any pending TA requirements or changes. Bidding for the VLOA is open now and will close on August 7 @ 12 PM (CT). Unpaid VLOAs for September hotline.

VLOAs create Tentative Reserves. We should have 115 Tentative Reserves that match the number of VLOAs. If we do not get 115 people to bid on the VLOAs, those designated as Tentative Reserve will be pulled to Reserve. Charlotte has never had a shortage of people who bid for the VLOAs, and Tentative Reserves have never had to serve Reserve.

We will have 165,781 flight hours. Just to compare, Last Sept we had 725 Reserves (24.7%), 616 less active Flight Attendants and 109 less Lineholders. Our flight hours are about the same as last year, but we have more people to cover the system.

September is a 31-day bid month. This accounts for some of the loss of hours, the biggest loss is due to cutting out Banks of flying on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Make no mistake, Charlotte still has a healthy amount of trips and hours, the reductions are seasonal and the loss of an IPD flight.

Last September, we had 24.7% of our base on Reserve and they were not utilized efficiently. We graphed last September’s usage to illustrate this and were hoping our numbers would have some impact in keeping our numbers lower this year. The company shared their data, and it was in line with ours, but they have only reduced the percentage to 23.8% while other bases will drop to 17 to 19%. We believe our Reserve numbers are still too high for September. The data from past years does not support the high numbers. It is crucial to keep the numbers low in months where flying is pulled down to prevent the reserve rotation seniority getting out of hand later in the year. Last fall, our high Reserve numbers were off set by the addition of new hires. We will not be getting new hires this year, but our base is getting a healthy amount of transfers who are generally more junior in their first year of flying. This should help to keep the reserve seniority in check for the short term. The cut off for reserve will be April 14, 2014.

This was the first time in over a year that we do not see a massive amount of flying on the first 2 days of the month. This stacking of time has led to higher reserve numbers, and we do not see it for September due to the holiday. This was another reason we expected our reserve numbers to drop, but the company has decided to keep the numbers high because of the high usage they have had with all the weather events and the fragile nature of our construction model.

Our trips break down as:

• 1 days will make up 22% of our trips (No Change)
• 2 days will make up 23% of our trips (Up)
• 2/3 days will make up 11%of our trips (Down)
• 3 days will make up 26% of our trips (No Change)
• 3/4 days will make up 1% of our trips (Down)
• 4 Days will make up 4% of our trips (No Change)
• ODANs will make up 6% of our trips (Down)
• Red eyes will make up 2% of our trips (Down)
• Bullets and pink eyes will make up less than 1% of our trips.

The one days are healthy with Island flying continuing and the one-day turns are still there. We also have the 4 leg one days, and little has been done to cut the sit time between the turns. The one days remain healthy.

There are more 2 days. Our 2/3 and 3/4 days were cut, most of the time has been pushed into 2 days. The departure times vary so it makes it possible to fly back-to-back 2 days. There are a lot of charters built into the system with College and Professional Football season opening up. There are some weird sequences built behind the clock. Look at the flight numbers carefully, many of these are the charters.

The 3 days have the most time crammed into them and are the largest type of trip we have. This is where we see the most sit times. 21% of our total trips had sit times over 2+30 hours. (Just an FYI, if the proposed contractual language were in effect today, 21% of our trips would pay the penalty for sit time). There are still a lot of 3 days with 4 legs built into a single duty period.

The 4 days have improved commutability and we do not see as much sit time as the 3 days, nor do they have as many multiple leg days.

The 2/3 and the 3/4 days have been cut from 20% of our flying back to 12%. Most of these have been absorbed into the 2 days. Most of these layovers were to low frequency cities and we have not cut the schedule to these cities, just the later flights and the early flights with the bank reduction on

certain days of the week. After the holiday, the aircraft type may downsize to some of the smaller markets, but we are still picking up much of the express flying.

The ODANs have dropped to the lowest level since April. This is due to the elimination of the last and 1st banks on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The ODANs are directly tied to these banks of flying.

The Redeyes are slightly down with the usual West coast cities making up the bulk of them. There are still the turns before you go out to the Coast which creates a problem with desirability. Many of the Redeyes have been assigned to the most Jr. Lineholders and create the most open time. We do not want to lose too many of these, but we have to find a balance in their numbers.

The Bullets and Pink Eyes are exactly the same as previous months. There are a few trans con, but most are the mid con cities. They continue to make up less than 1% of our flying.

Charlotte is still running an aggressive schedule, the only cuts coming for our base are in the bank reductions and the loss of IPD Paris.

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September 2024 Bidding Timelines

All in all, Charlotte will have a healthy fall schedule. The emphasis on leisure travel will continue as long as the demand is there. We service a wide range of destinations from Charlotte and the company will continue to utilize us to fill this need.

We are very happy that we have a Tentative Agreement for a new contract! This agreement is the result of years of fighting for improvements and your efforts and support through the process. Charlotte will host a Negotiations Team roadshow on August 8th from 10:30 AM until 2:30 PM at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport. We encourage everyone to attend a roadshow, in person or virtually, so you can ask questions and get the information you need before you cast your vote. This has been a long road to getting this agreement and now is the time to get informed and exercise your voice on a contract that will guide us for years to come.

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