Scheduling Chair Report  - Jan 08

From Your MEC Scheduling Chair, Eric Brahm

American Eagle has been experiencing a Pilot shortage for quite a while.  Because the Flight Attendants are co-paired with the pilots, the shortage affects us directly and our bid packages are far from what we would ideally like to see.

I keep hearing from Flight Attendants “Hire more Pilots”.  I wish it were so simple. I assure you the company is striving hard to do so.  However, they are competing for new Pilots with all other airlines in the industry and there are certain factors that make American Eagle a less attractive place for career growth than some of our competitors.

When considering where to apply, Pilots look at pay scales, job security, quality of life, opportunities for growth, and potential for movement from a regional to a major air carrier.  The average time to move from First Officer to Captain at Eagle is approximately seven years.  At other regional airlines it might be as little as two. We have a more senior work force than other regional airlines.  There is no guarantee at this time that new hire pilots will be given an opportunity to move into American any time in the near future.  The recent announcement of the impending sale or spin off of Eagle also affects people’s decisions on whether to apply for a position here and whether to remain employed here.  I’m positive that the announcement sparked many resumes to get revamped and many visits to Monster.com etc.

Recently the Pilot recruitment department has made the hiring requirements less restrictive by lowering the number of hours of flight time necessary to be considered.  It is offering assistance to help eligible pilots receive some of the hours needed to make them qualify.  We have pilot classes going on now and many classes planned throughout the new year.  However, keeping up with attrition appears to be an uphill struggle if not a losing battle. As the Pilot numbers go down or as flight hours go up, our Planners, become creative when making sequences and constructing lines.  The variety in the bid packages suffers as they are forced to utilize the crews more effectively.  The duty times go up and the block hours increase along with the number of legs.  Some bases are seeing a drastic increase in the number of 4 day trips and the loss of various other trip types altogether.  Other bases, such as LAX and MIA have lost flying during the day but have maintained the number of overnights.  At these bases we’re seeing weaker trips which can hurt cadence and result in fewer days off. 

While the Pilot staffing has been bad, the Flight Attendant staffing has gotten much better.  We’ve had new hire classes throughout the year at Eagle, and more recently at Executive.  All bases have been open for transfer.  Having more reserves allows for more flexibility through increased drops and TTOT.  At bases where the head count allows it, the Planners have been creating additional Flight Attendant lines by removing sequences from Pilot Lines and building some new ones.  This doesn’t improve the quality of our sequences and isn’t a perfect solution but it does lower the block line average value.  It also increases the average number of days off and more lines helps some Flight Attendants move from RSV to hold a line.

As your MEC Scheduling Chair I have been offered and accepted an opportunity to work on Special Assignment with the Planning Department for the next several months.  This experience should help me to better understand how the department operates.  I am hoping that this understanding can translate into my being able to offer some input that can improve our quality of life.  Like every thing in life, there is no guarantee that this will happen.  My observations may prove of little value.  I might learn that we are limited in what can be accomplished in improving our lines due to the various constraints working against us. I prefer to be optimistic that this experience proves useful and I will give it my best effort.