Hello, Council 12 LAX and SAN members,
Your Council 12 Scheduling Committee wanted to send you an update about the line build for the January 2024 Schedules.
For our LAX members:
Lower line averages, combined with the number of lines requested to be built by the company, created a challenge for your Local Schedule Committee for the January Schedule. While every effort was made to keep "like" flying together, it simply was not possible in all instances as the same amount of flying had to be spread across more Flight Attendants which necessitated some level of mixing.
When the Local Schedule Committee inquired as to why the line holder targets and values were being assigned in such a way requiring us to do this, we were informed that the company wishes to keep the reserve pool size consistent, ensuring that our members serving reserve fly their guarantee. Additionally, there were several other variables which factored into the assigned line average and target for the month, such as less demand for Special Colas, which means that more Flight Attendants need to be awarded primary lines.
It is normal to see lower line averages after the busy holiday travel season, but January’s line averages for domestic flying was unexpected given the continued transfers into Los Angeles, as well as the assignment of new hires in the base. While the growth of the base is good news, we will continue to advocate that the company use all contractual parameters to manage their manpower in a way that provide our Membership with consistency and flexibility, while establishing line averages and targets which would allow us to build recommendations that our members want to fly. We have reached out to our partners at the Central Schedule Committee who will, for example, be advocating for extra day off lines for reserves; while some Members may not want to take an entire month off, providing extra day off lines gives our members serving reserve the chance to take additional days off. And while they have been resistant to do so in the past, we will also ask them about job-shares or multi-month partnerships.
Click here to download the January 2024 Scheduling Report.
For our SAN members:
Line averages for the SAN base continue to remain consistently above 80 hours. However, quality of trip pairings is anything short of great. This is consistent with domestic flying at all domiciles. There is the “good, bad, and ugly” with trip pairings at all domiciles. Because the SAN base is smaller than most domiciles, we are reminded of the not-so-great flying daily. Yes, there is small and gradual growth in SAN, but our members do transfer out of SAN looking for better flying and better schedule flexibility. The Company is hesitant of increasing the reserve population in SAN as they want all reserves flying to guarantee as stated earlier. Your local Council Scheduling Committee always advocates for more FA transfers to SAN which usually creates some increase in block hours for the base which, in theory, could create more flying and variety. Nevertheless, your Scheduling Committee and the Central Schedule Committee continue to advocate for improved flying at all bases.
We hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday season. Happy Holidays!
Click here to download the January 2024 Scheduling Report.
In Solidarity,
Sharlene, Tim, Greg, Melanie, Xing, David, Margarita, and Ludmilla