In what has been years in the making, American Airlines flight attendants have voted to ratify their new contract. American and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) finally came to a tentative agreement back in July. That agreement came at the end of a weeklong negotiation as the flight attendants prepared to strike.
The tentative contract was approved by the APFA Executive Committee in late July, giving American’s 28,000+ flight attendants their first look at the proposed contract. The core compensation package proposed is outlined below:
- Increase in profit sharing percentage from 5% to 10%/20% model which is the same as pilots, mechanics, and agents
- Pay Scale Step Increases of 33% to 36% over five years
- Immediate Date-of-Signing (DOS) scale increases of 18% to 20.5%
- Out-year scale increases of 2.75%, 3.0%, 3.0%, and 3.5%
- With boarding pay premium, increases of 41% to 44% over five years
- 401(k) increased from 5.5% to 9%
- Per Diem increases by 27% at DOS to $2.85 Domestic and $3.40 International (which is in line with American pilots. Tis includes increases of .05 cents per year, adding an average of 35% over 5 years
In addition, flight attendants will also receive $514 million in retroactive pay which equates to roughly $18,400 per flight attendant.
American Flight Attendants Vote to Ratify New Contract
There was a lot of chatter amongst flight attendants and airline industry insiders as to whether or not APFA members would vote to ratify the contract as written. However, we got our answer today as 87% of American’s flight attendants voted to ratify the new agreement (95% of eligible flight attendants participated in the vote.
With 95% of eligible Flight Attendants voting, 87% of American Airlines Flight Attendants voted YES to ratify the 2024 agreement. #1u #solidarity pic.twitter.com/aMQmQpioLJ
— Association of Professional Flight Attendants (@APFAunity) September 12, 2024
The new contract marks an end to five years of negotiations for flight attendants at the Fort Worth based carrier, giving them a much needed compensation boost along with boarding and back pay.
American Airlines CEO, Robert Isom, had this to say about the new contract:
“It’s an exciting day for American’s nearly 28,000 flight attendants and our entire airline. Reaching an agreement for our flight attendants has been a top priority, and today, we celebrate achieving this important milestone. Both the APFA and company negotiating teams had a shared mission of delivering an agreement our flight attendants have earned, and I greatly appreciate their work and relentless focus. I want to personally thank APFA President Julie Hedrick for her leadership through these negotiations and in her daily leadership of the industry’s best flight attendants. I also wish to thank Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other partners in the Administration for their support throughout this process. And a special thanks to the American team for their exceptional work in reaching an agreement we’re all proud of.”
Summary
It’s an exciting day for flight attendants at American Airlines as they finally have a new contract after five years of tense negotiations between the Fort Worth based carrier and the APFA. 95% of eligible flight attendants participated in the vote with 87% of them voting to ratify the contract.
While clearly there are some flight attendants who are still unhappy with the deal, it’s nice that we can finally put this in the rearview, at least for another five years.
