APFA Negotiations

Productivity

Productivity is an important component of the cost equation. The current structure of American's labor contracts has led to our workgroups trailing the industry in this area. To secure American’s long-term success and position us on a competitive playing field with other carriers, our operations must be as efficient and productive as possible.

Productivity is the amount of an employer's products or services provided by each employee in a given period of time. For example, Car Company A is able to build 10 cars per hour, while Car Company B produces eight cars per hour. Both have the same fixed costs and number of employees and achieve the same level of quality in their product. However, in this comparison, Company A has achieved higher productivity. The power of productivity enables Company A to be more profitable and to more highly compensate its employees than Company B, while maintaining balanced labor costs, thus producing the product for the same or a lower cost.

AA’s productivity disadvantage is driven by the current contract. For flight attendants, the biggest factor that contributes to this disadvantage is schedule max – which dictates the number of hours that American can schedule its flight attendants. Today's AA flight attendant contract carries the lowest schedule max in the industry.



1/WN schedule max is 130 Trips for Pay (TFP). A factor of 0.88 was applied to convert to 114 hours.


In our negotiations with APFA, the company seeks to better align the monthly schedule maximum with that of other U.S. carriers. American’s recent proposal increases the monthly max to 89-hours for domestic and international – which would begin year two of the contract.


Flight attendant productivity is measured by the number of hours actually flown during a month. On average, AA flight attendants fly among the fewest hours of any network airline flight attendant group, placing American at a distinct competitive disadvantage.

 

Source: US DOT Form 41, US DOT  T100,  OAG, US DOT T2, American Airlines.

Notes: FY2010.  Assumes minimum FAA staffing for Southwest, jetBlue, Virgin America, Alaska and AirTran. Data for American based on American’s staffing model. United and Continental staffing assumed to be 1 less than American on 777 flying. Delta/US Airways staffing assumed to be 1 less than United/Continental on widebody flying. Number of flight attendants from US DOT schedule P10 “Pass Gen Svc Admin” except for Virgin America and Alaska which are US DOT schedule P10 “Other Flt Pers”.

On average, an American Airlines flight attendant flies approximately 58 hours per month, but is compensated for approximately 74 hours.