APA Negotiations

Work rules

Productivity
Productivity is an important component of the cost equation. Pilot productivity is measured by the number of hours actually flown during a month (block hours). Our pilots work hard and many are flying as much as they can. However, the inefficiencies in the contract and additional reserves means that overall, American pilots fly less on average than our competitors. 

 

The current contractlimits the number of hours a month our pilots can be scheduled to fly, creates additional reserves and inflates our costs, creating major operationalinefficiencies. We need a contract that removes the inefficiencies and allows pilots to fly more – and earn more – giving American a competitive advantage, and with no cost of pilot jobs.   

 

By removing the current hard monthly maximum and moving to a higher annual averagemaximum, pilots will have greater flexibility over the number of hours they fly each month, and have opportunities to pick up additional trips and earn more money. This means the company gets more productivity, and has guaranteed that no pilots will be furloughed as a result of the contractual changes. We’ll transition to the appropriate staffing levels through normal attrition and potential growth.

The company has proposed two approaches for timing of implementing increased productivity, detailed in Options A and B.

In addition to the ability to increase earnings, pilots can better predict their income through sequence pay protection, provided that the loss of flying is beyond the control of the pilot. To recapture lost pay, pilots would be required to be available for make-up flying within an agreed to window of their cancelled sequence.

Trip Trade System
Today pilots are limited by the older Trip Trade with Open Time system, so we’re proposing an industry-leading Trip Trade system that will enhance pilots’ scheduling flexibility. Pilots will be able to trip trade among themselves to a much greater degree than today, thus improving the quality of life/scheduling benefits by enabling greater control over their schedule. It will also create opportunities to increase their monthly projections, and consequently, enhance their earning power. 

Reserves
Another priority for both the company and the APA has been to create a greater ratio of line holders to reserves.Today, reserves make up about 30 percent of our total active headcount on an annual basis. By comparison, our network competitors’ ratio of reserves to line holders is, on average, around 15 percent. We’d like to move more flying to lines, reducing the number of reserves.

We’re also attempting to reduce the number of days a reserve pilot is required to be available – from 19 to 16 days per month, extended to 17 days four times per year.  This would be the lowest among network carriers. Changes to the system will allow reserve pilots to better predict their schedule and provide an opportunity for additional pay above guarantee for voluntary flying completed on off duty days.