American Airlines flight attendants based at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport are being displaced and reassigned to new bases with short notice. Over 500 Phoenix-based flight attendants, formally America West crews (or “new” US Airways, immediately post merger) had to pick a new city to begin and end their work days.
Phoenix, an American hub following the merger, is also suffering from flight attendant staffing shortages amid their plans to displace the crews in limbo. The airline has been offering incentives and extra pay to lure flight attendants on scheduled days off to come to work and fly.
“They have told us it makes more sense to fly trips that are based somewhere else”, said Alana Billingsley, a Phoenix-based council representative for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants to Forbes.
American, like the other airlines, offered voluntary leaves of absences and furloughs, early retirements and other packages ahead of the industry’s October 1, 2020 deadline when funding from the CARES act, which delivered airlines money to continue to pay their employees, ran out. American also tried to convince the workgroup that their “jobs will be miserable” if they remained on the payroll and didn’t take a leave. Prompting Paul Hartshorn Jr., a spokesperson for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants to tell AZFamily “people have had to make really tough decisions here.”
Soon thereafter, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker had said he was optimistic with the volunteer numbers he was seeing and thought the displacement from Phoenix wasn’t going to be necessary. However, days before the announcement that 284 active flight attendants would be displaced and have less than two weeks to decide where to begin and end their trips (that number will increase to over 500 as those on a voluntary leave return to flying) the airline’s Senior Vice President of Flight Service, Jill Surdeck, announced her retirement at the end of the year.
The majority of the 284 (and soon to be 500+) flight attendants being displaced are within the 10-20 year seniority range and, most of which, live in the Phoenix area as America West had only Phoenix and Las Vegas crew bases prior to the merger with US Airways. Although the industry norm is to expect the unexpected and understand that your base assignment is contingent on staffing levels, these are flight attendants whom, outside of a pandemic, wouldn’t normally be facing adjustments to their lives based on staffing levels. Now, they’re being forced to commute or “fly” to work from Phoenix to Los Angeles, Dallas or another base, before flying for work as a crewmember.
In a 2009 article in the Los Angeles Times written by Tiffany Hawk, a former flight attendant, entitled “Wake up, flight crews!“, Tiffany explores the limits that flight crews, specifically flight attendants, are pushed to by the airline and the industry. Dubbed “commuters,” the time it takes for flight attendants and pilots to fly to work before flying for work does not count as part of their work day, even if the airline is forcing them to change bases. This makes for extremely long and exhausting days especially for those who do not chose this lifestyle. Tiffany’s article states: “Several sleep studies have shown that 17 hours of wakefulness is equivalent to a blood-alcohol level of 0.05%. Between 19 and 24 hours of wakefulness, that number goes up to 0.10%” She goes on to highlight “For crew and passenger safety, the FAA mandates that flight attendants work a maximum of 14 hours, extendable to 20 hours, with minimum rest periods of nine hours, reducible to eight hours.” But the time commuting to and from work doesn’t count in these calculations. American Airlines is now forcing some flight attendants, some of which could be working your flight, to possibly stay awake for 17+ hours.
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With American struggling to staff flights from Phoenix displacing these crews may only exacerbate the situation. Flight Attendants based in Phoenix, their families and co-workers, have started the social media hashtag #KeepUsPHX to show support for American Airlines keeping these crews based in Phoenix and it garnered media attention putting pressure on the airline to take notice.
To prove their point, one post on Instagram using the hashtag shows an American Airlines San Francisco based trip in which the first flight and the last flight, position crews (deadheads) to and from Phoenix to operate flights because of the bases inability to cover the flights scheduled with the staff on hand.
The majority of the active 284 Phoenix flight attendants have been “awarded” new base assignments effective 1/31/2021 at Los Angeles (LAX) and Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) with others now being based across the system including Charlotte (CLT) and Philadelphia (PHL).
Bobby Laurie
His background in the travel industry dates back to November 2005 when he was initially hired as a flight attendant. After initially flying for six months for US Airways (now American Airlines) Laurie had started his move up the corporate ladder and held various positions within the industry before ultimately landing as an Analyst specializing in InFlight Policies & Procedures.
