AAWW Negotiators and Management Meet, Substantial Progress Reported
At the request of AAWW management; the IBT Airline Division, Local 1224 leadership, co chairs of the AAWW TEC and the Negotiating Committee met on Thursday in Miami for the purpose of bargaining over economic sections of the single collective bargaining agreement prior to the planned arbitration. In a message to the membership late today, the TEC co chairs announced that tentative agreements on all economic sections of the contract, including rates of pay, profit sharing, insurance and CRAF flying, had been reached.
“We’re very pleased that we have been able to conclude these critical sections of the contract,” said Atlas Air TEC Co-Chairman Captain Stephen Richards. “Our negotiators have done a tremendous job and deserve credit for their hard work. We are also grateful for the support of the Airline Division and Local 1224. Additional work remains and we are hopeful that the remaining sections can be concluded as well,” he went on to say.
Representatives for the pilots and the company will meet in Washington next week to finalize the language in each of the agreed to sections. In light of the progress made this week, the planned October interest arbitration dates have been cancelled. Unless solutions are reached on the remaining sections the contract; Scope, Information Sharing and Picket Lines, – those items will be submitted to interest arbitration in November.
UAL Negotiations Continue
Negotiations continued this week at United’s headquarters in Elk Grove, focusing on Article IV (Classifications) and Article V (Progression, Examinations, and License Requirements).
The negotiating team held extensive discussions prior to submitting proposals to the Company negotiators. The bulk of the discussions involved lead mechanics as well as testing/training. As of the conclusion of the negotiations on Thursday, the company had not yet provided a response.
Negotiations are scheduled will continue the week of November 1st in Chicago and the week of November 8th, with a location yet to be determined.
Week In Review News Items
Labor Developments
A tentative agreement between Southwest Airlines and its pilots will enable the airline to convert aircraft orders for Boeing 737-700s to larger 737-800s. The 737-800s can accommodate about 40 additional passengers…a deal to resolve the long-running British Airways cabin crew dispute could be reached as early as next week. Talks between the airline and the Unite cabin crew union are due to resume this week at the conciliation service ACAS following discussions on Friday.
Legislative, Safety & Regulatory
Serious runway incursions at U.S. airports fell for a second-consecutive year, FAA says. For federal fiscal year 2010, which ended on Sept. 30, U.S. airports reported six serious incursions compared with 12 a year ago…a key safety measure recently passed by Congress in response to a deadly regional airline crash last year is facing opposition from industry officials concerned that it could lead to higher salaries for airline pilots. A FAA advisory panel wants to reduce by two-thirds a requirement that airline co-pilots have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flying experience…and there is something unsettling about Jetstar operating a passenger flight in which a pilot with only 50 hours experience on an A320 fails a training landing approach, and it then gets ‘buried’ among 19 other lower level incident reports finalized this week by the ATSB.
Airline Industry Finances & Structure
The parent of Frontier Airlines is not for sale, although its CEO said on Wednesday that he would be interested in a marketing arrangement with a bigger airline…have airlines decided that it's time to add some flights, expand the schedule? The nine largest U.S. carriers added about 3.1 billion available seat miles in September compared to a year earlier. That's more than JetBlue Airway's total capacity…the world’s airlines stand to collect about $22.6 billion in ancillary revenue in 2010, compared with about $13.5 billion last year…and the Justice Department should go beyond its traditional market-competition analysis in reviewing the Southwest bid to buy AirTran, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) told department officials. The Southwest-AirTran merger warrants an expanded focus because of the importance of low-cost carriers in setting the competitive tone for the industry, he said.
Miscellaneous
Low-fare behemoth Southwest Airlines' on-time performance is getting worse, even as United and Continental are soaring to the top of the on-time charts. For the first time in recent memory, with a 78.5 percent September on-time arrival performance, Southwest finished dead last among the largest domestic carrier…JetBlue will start a new advertising campaign with a familiar brand message: Ours is better than theirs. The campaign, which debuts Friday, features the slogan "You Above All" in print and video ads. The online portion features a humorous series of videos that point out the shortcomings of other airlines.