APA News Digest

July 21, 2023

Editor’s note: Some links in this message will work best if you log in to AlliedPilots.org before clicking them.

In This Edition ...

• The Decision Before Us
• Tentative Agreement Ratification Vote
• RSVP for a Contract 2023 Road Show
• American Reports Quarterly Profit of $1.3 Billion
• APFA to Conduct Strike Vote
• Family Awareness Committee: We’ll See You at Oshkosh
• Government Affairs Committee: U.S. House Approves FAA Bill Preserving ATP Requirements
• Hotel Committee: “Booking in Progress” is Still Just a Placeholder
• Contract Compliance Committee: Illegalities During Recovery Obligation
• Medical Advisors: VA Disability Opportunity for Disclosure
• Maintenance and Technical Analysis Committee: Pigs of the Week
• Membership Committee: APA Welcomes New Pilots
• Membership Committee: APA Welcomes Captains’ Leadership Class
• Domicile Events
• Week in Review
• Are You Willing to Serve?
• Professional Standards FAQ
• If You’re 50, Join The Grey Eagles
• Pilot Job Fairs and Future Pilot Seminars

The Decision Before Us

APA President CA Ed Sicher sent the following message to all members today.

As you are surely aware, your APA Board of Directors, National Officers, and Negotiating Committee have been fully engaged since the news broke regarding the United pilots’ Agreement in Principle (AIP). With the change in our bargaining environment brought about by the United AIP, we have focused our efforts on enhancing our current Tentative Agreement (TA) so that it is worthy of your consideration.

Senior management responded favorably to the invitation to meet promptly to address the new landscape, and the Negotiating Committee undertook a comprehensive review of the United AIP to facilitate Board guidance on which provisions to address. The Board then dispatched the Negotiating Committee to engage with management with an extensive and ambitious list of needed improvements to the current TA.

This afternoon, in response to our demands, management responded with a comprehensive proposal designed to bring closure to negotiations and maintain the membership voting schedule to the extent possible.

Management made proposals in many areas to include the following:

• Snap-up to match Delta/United pay rates after the Delta snap-up triggers
• Future wage increases accelerated to take effect every January 1
• Ratification bonus of 21% to fill the retro hole January-April 2023 based on longevity and seat on May 2, 2023
• 401(k) acceleration of increase to January 2024
• Increase in international override to $7/$5
• Increase in per diem to domestic $2.85/international $3.40
• Extended sick leave bank pre-loaded to 120 hours and accruing 4 hours per month in addition to previous accrual
• Medical freedom protections
• Max un-augmented duty day lesser of 13 hours or FAR 117 table B minus 30’
• Reserve “show, no go” pay increase to 5 hours
• 2-hour OG incentive for reserves volunteering to show and subsequently assigned prior to 1000 on day 1
• Hotel guarantees for reassignments outside original sequence footprint with no opportunity to commute to home of record that calendar day
• Maximum duty periods in sequence not to exceed number of calendar days
• Increase in life insurance coverage to $750,000 regardless of age

Your Board reconvened at 1500 Central to receive a negotiations update. With today’s developments, the Board will have an opportunity to determine whether management’s comprehensive proposal is worthy of a membership vote.

I encourage you to stay engaged, stay informed, and ensure that YOUR domicile representatives hear YOUR input regarding the path forward.

In Unity,

CA Ed Sicher
APA President

Tentative Agreement Ratification Vote

In accordance with the APA Constitution and Bylaws, the ratification vote will be conducted via electronic ballot. Voting is scheduled to open at 0700 Central on July 24 and close at 0700 Central on Aug. 7.

The electronic balloting will be supervised and conducted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). Detailed voting instructions were emailed to each member on July 14, when they were also sent via postal mail. (Click here to see an example.)

To review the Tentative Agreement and related information, please visit the Contract 2023 webpage.

Questions? Please contact APA Election Coordinator Kathy Lazenby:

• Phone: 817-302-2175
• Email: TA2023@alliedpilots.org
• Hours: 0900 to 1630 Central, Monday through Friday

RSVP for a Contract 2023 Road Show

The full Tentative Agreement, an Executive Summary of the TA, and Board members’ comment letters were posted to the Contract 2023 webpage on July 10.

The APA Policy Manual stipulates that each domicile shall receive a “Road Show” presentation after the membership has at least 14 days to study the aforementioned documents. In accordance with that policy, we have scheduled a series of presentations across the system.

Members are free to attend any of the presentations, regardless of where they are based.

Each of those RSVP links will require you to log into AlliedPilots.org first. That way, the website will be able to identify you. Simply click the “Submit” button, and you should see a message that says, “Your RSVP has been submitted.”

American Reports Quarterly Profit of $1.3 Billion

On Thursday, American Airlines reported its second-quarter financial results, including:

• Record quarterly revenue of $14.1 billion, a 4.7% increase year over year.
• Second-quarter net income of $1.3 billion, or $1.88 per diluted share. Excluding net special items, second-quarter net income of $1.4 billion, or $1.92 per diluted share.
• Generated operating cash flow of $1.8 billion and free cash flow of $1.2 billion in the second quarter.
• Ended the quarter with $14.9 billion of total available liquidity.

“It was another fantastic quarter for American, driven by the hard work of our team to deliver a reliable operation for our customers and the continued strong demand for our product,” CEO Robert Isom said in a press release. “Our operation is performing at historically strong levels, and we have worked to refresh our fleet and build a comprehensive global network, all of which helped to produce record revenues in the second quarter. We will build on this momentum the rest of the year and continue to prioritize reliability, profitability, accountability and strengthening our balance sheet.”

During management’s earnings call with reporters and Wall Street analysts, Mr. Isom fielded several questions about the status of our Tentative Agreement.

“We’re going to match the wages that United is proposing,” he said, later adding, “No matter what, over the long run, we’re going to make sure our pilots are taken care of.”

APFA to Conduct Strike Vote

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has scheduled a strike authorization vote that will begin on July 28 and conclude on Aug. 29. Like us, the flight attendants have been in contract negotiations with American Airlines management since 2019.

We’ll See You at Oshkosh

This is an updated message from the APA Family Awareness Committee.

Wednesday’s dinner at the APA tent will be a cooperative event with American Airlines’ Military and Veterans Initiatives program. Three veterans who received the Medal of Honor for their service in Vietnam – Patrick Brady, Sammy Davis, and Jim McCloughan – will be the guests of honor.

Earlier on Wednesday, FO Ken Hagan and FO Jim Woodke from the APA Critical Incident Response Program Subcommittee will discuss the history of critical incident stress management (CISM) and how it can be successfully applied to aviation. The goal of CISM is to keep pilots in the air after a critical incident by attempting to identify and mitigate the harmful effects of stress and PTSD before it begins to disrupt daily life with self, family, and friends. Their seminar is scheduled from 1430 to 1545 on July 26 in Workshop Classroom A.

U.S. House Approves FAA Bill Preserving ATP Requirements

This is a new message from the APA Government Affairs Committee.

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 351-69 to approve its FAA bill (H.R. 3935) that would authorize more than $100 billion for aviation operations, equipment, and airports for five years. The bill does not call for any changes to new-hire pilot qualification requirements but includes a provision raising mandatory pilot retirement to age 67.

The next step in the process will be for the Senate to consider its version of the bill. Once the Senate approves an FAA bill, the House and Senate bills will be reconciled, and both chambers will vote on that new version. If approved, it then goes to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

Your APA Government Affairs Committee is pleased that the House chose to preserve the existing ATP requirements. We will be closely engaged with the Senate in the coming days to help ensure that its version of the bill does likewise. In addition, we will be addressing the pilot retirement age issue with the Senate in accordance with APA policy, which calls for preserving mandatory retirement at age 65.

“Booking in Progress” is Still Just a Placeholder

This is a new message from the APA Hotel Committee.

It happened again – last week, one of our pilots ended up sleeping in an airport. And no, the airport did not have a crew room.

A few weeks ago, an international crew was denied entry to a foreign country because the company had not secured rooms for them. They were escorted back through security and told to board the first flight back to the states.

DO NOT depart if you see “Booking in Progress” in CCI. We have said it before: Those three words are a placeholder. They do not mean someone is in the process of booking you a room. Once you move the metal, you are no longer the priority. Pilots who question “Booking in Progress” experience a much quicker wait when a departure time is at risk. Take care of yourself and your crew, and ensure the company is abiding by the JCBA by providing you with suitable accommodations.

For more information, see the QRH – Quick Reference Hotels document, which should answer 99 percent of all hotel and transportation questions while providing helpful solutions. Suggestion: Download this QRH document to your AA iPad for easy access in the future.

Illegalities During Recovery Obligation

This is the latest in a series of Q&As from the APA Contract Compliance Committee.

Q: I was scheduled to fly a two-day sequence with a follow-on, two-day sequence (four days of flying). The last flight of my first sequence cancelled. I was brought back to domicile on the first available flight the next day (Section 4.C.2.c.(2)), but the Replacement Flying and extension of the first sequence overlapped my follow-on sequence. Why was my next sequence not removed OP? Why am I now responsible for Recovery Obligation for the second sequence?

A: When a sequence is delayed, a reassignment is executed, or Replacement Flying is assigned that causes an illegality with your next sequence, a Replacement Flying Window (RFW) is created to protect the value of the conflict sequence. Section 4.C.3.a.(3) allows for a Replacement Flying assignment that causes an illegality with the pilot’s next sequence(s) and resultant Recovery Obligation for the removed sequence. Section 4.C.3.a.(4) allows the RFW to be extended when the first available flight back to domicile is outside the RFW. If this assignment creates an illegality, the pilot is responsible for Recovery Obligation for the removed sequence.

If the Company does not utilize the first available flight(s) back to domicile, the flying or deadheading is a reassignment and not RO. In accordance with Section 4.C.7.c, a follow-on illegality created from this type of assignment should be removed with “OP.” This removal is a paid, no credit, no RO code and, at pilot option, would allow you to “double-dip” and pick up additional flying. The pilot may call Crew Tracking and ask the flights outside the RFW which do not comply with 4.C.2.c.(2) be coded as AF.

• Section 4.C.3.a.(3): The Company may assign Replacement Flying that causes an illegality with the pilot’s next sequence(s).
• Section 4.C.3.a.(4): The Company may assign Replacement Flying that is scheduled to terminate beyond the Replacement Flying Window in accordance with C.2.c.(2).
• Section 4.C.2.c.: Replacement Flying – Flying that is assigned / awarded by the Company to a pilot whose sequence, or portion thereof, has cancelled.
  (1) Replacement Flying Window – (i) The Sequence Footprint plus four (4) hours, or the end of the calendar day, whichever is later, or (ii) the Sequence Footprint, plus thirty (30) hours for Trans Oceanic sequences, including to/from Hawaii, U.S. to South of the Equator.
  (2) The Replacement Flying Window may be extended beyond C.2.c.(1) above if the pilot flies or is deadheaded on the first available flight(s) to base. The “first available flight(s) to base” is the flight(s) that arrives at the base the earliest. The flight(s) may be direct or indirect.
• Section 4.C.7.c.: Reassigned during replacement flying – if reassigned during replacement flying, and the reassignment causes an unresolved illegality with the pilot’s next sequence(s) at the time of assignment, the pilot shall be removed paid and uncredited from the illegal sequence(s) with no replacement flying obligation for the removed sequence(s).

VA Disability Opportunity for Disclosure

This is a repeated message from the APA Medical Advisors.

VA Disability Ratings have been a recent subject of concern for many pilots. Disability benefits and/or related medical conditions must be disclosed to the FAA. The FAA is seeking to reconcile any inaccuracy or failure to report on past medical applications by providing an opportunity for disclosure.

All First-Class Airman Medical Certificate holders with unreported VA benefits must submit a new medical application and schedule an appointment with an AME when their current medical expires, or no later than July 31, 2023, whichever is earlier.

Any questions regarding this should be directed to the APA Medical Advisors. Failure to submit an expedited reapplication and reexamination in accordance with the FAA’s timeline or failure to disclose all reasonably known information may result in legal enforcement action.

Pigs of the Week

APA commends American Airlines’ hardworking aircraft maintenance technicians for their outstanding work. We believe they are the best in the business. When repetitive problems do arise, they’re often due to managerial decisions that fail to properly prioritize tasks and to management’s decision to outsource a significant portion of the airline’s maintenance to offshore, third-party repair stations.

• Since July 4, B737 aircraft 3HT has been written up five times and been out of service four times for right wing to body overheat. At the time of this writing, it was restricted to Class 1 or 2 maintenance stations.
• In the last month, A321 aircraft 189 has been written up seven times and been out of service five times for poor cabin cooling. At the time of this writing, it was out of service.
• Since May 26, the right engine bleed air on A319 aircraft 757 has been written up 14 times and been out of service nine times. At the time of this writing, the bleed air was on MEL.
• UPDATE: In the last two weeks, the right engine on A321 aircraft 575 has been written up and been out of service nine times for start faults. At the time of this writing, it was out of service.

APA Welcomes New Pilots

This is a new message from the APA Membership Committee.

Click the image for a closer look.

The APA Membership Committee welcomed the following pilots during a casual dinner on July 18: Angel Ayure-Lopez, William Barkley, Francis Barros, Taylor Boaks, Steven Boyd, Sergio Bressan, Gregory Brown, Oravis Cabrera, Dalton Caldwell, Scott Carlson, Erick Castro, Yu Wang Chia, Andrew Colich, Jeremy Crist, Matthew Cruse, Louis D’Antonio, Kenneth Darlington, Keith Ervin, Antoine Gamet, Jonathan Gentile, Shane Gylling, Kenneth Hailey, Michael Ham, Jay Heide, Thomas Herrington, Jason Holmes, Michael Kelly, Alexander Kingsley, Steven Kirkpatrick, Mark Kleiner, Steven Knight, Matthew Kuntz, Bruce Lefferts, David MacPherson, John Marshall, Peter Martin, Neil McKenna IV, Peter McMorrow, Derek Mintle, Jaime Moncada Garcia, Bradley Nordstrom, Christopher Ortiz, Matthew Palmer, Jermaine Phillips, Jacob Porter, Jose Rafols, John Richmond, Paul Robertson, Matthew Roper, Matias Sandoval, Aaron Shotts, Andres Sierra Diaz, Matthew Slaughter, Michael Slover, Stephen Stark, Dagan Stites, Michael Thorsen, Van Ward II, Jeffrey Williams, and Merlin Yoder.

APA Welcomes Captains’ Leadership Class

This is a new message from the APA Membership Committee.

Click the image for a closer look.

On July 19, the APA Membership Committee hosted a casual dinner for the following pilots who were in Fort Worth for American Airlines’ Professionalism, Leadership, and Mentoring class: Esteban Arcila Aranzazu, Kendall Bascom, David Behar Mejia, Jeffrey Boyer, Michael Bramble, Shannon Buller, Jerad Carpenter, Kellen Cottrell, Ryan Dacey, Richard Dilko, Quenten Esser, Andrew Garrett, Hugo Gonzalez, Shawn Gray, James Haizlip, Matthew Hoerstman, Marco Junco, Matthias Knuth, Michael Kologi, Graham Kyle Iii, Rafael Madrid, Paul Matthews, Charles Niblack Jr., Michael Nicoson, Richard Petersen, Max Pippin, Michael Roberson, Richard Robinson, Mark Ruddell, Johannes Ruderstaller, Michael Siegel, Paulo Silva, Alejandro Sparis, Calvin Tenhet, Sean Vance, Arthur Villegas, George Wilson, and Kevin York.

Domicile Events

Get more details about these upcoming events at AlliedPilots.org/Calendar:

• BOS: TA Road Show on Aug. 1
• CLT: TA Road Show on July 25
• DCA: TA Road Show on July 27
• DFW: TA Road Show on Aug. 3; Family Awareness event at TopGolf in Austin on Aug. 8
• LAX: TA Road Show on Aug. 1; Concourse Conversations on Aug. 17
• LGA: TA Road Show on July 27; New York Mets game on Sept. 2
• MIA: TA Road Show on July 26
• ORD: TA Road Show on Aug. 2
• PHL: TA Road Show on July 26
• PHX: Arizona Diamondbacks game on July 24; TA Road Show on Aug. 2

Week in Review

The following messages were sent since last week’s News Digest was published.

• Communications Committee: United Pilots Reach Agreement in Principle
• APA Leadership: Our New Bargaining Landscape
• President: Will They Attempt to Lowball Us Again?
• Information Hotline: APA Board of Directors Convenes Emergency Meeting
• Information Hotline: APA Board of Directors Reconvenes
• Information Hotline: APA Board of Directors Resumes Meeting
• Information Hotline: APA Board of Directors Meeting Update
• Membership Committee: You’re on Probation With AA, Not With APA
• Information Technology Steering Committee: Volunteers Needed to Beta Test APA Mobile 2.0
• Press Release: “Compromising on Safety is Never an Option”
• Communications Committee: We Remember TWA Flight 800

Are You Willing to Serve?

Each of these national committees or subcommittees has the indicated number of vacancies:

• Aeromedical Committee (1)
  • Critical Incident Response Program (1)
  • Disabled Pilot Awareness Subcommittee (3)
  • Human Intervention Motivation Study Subcommittee (3)
  • Pilot Occupational Health Subcommittee (2)
  • Project Wingman Subcommittee (3)
• Captain’s Authority Committee (5)
• Communications Committee (0)
  • National Communications Network (6)
• Compass Project (6)
• Grey Eagles Liaison Committee (1)
• Jumpseat/Non-Rev Committee (4)
• Professional Standards Committee (1)
• Retirement & Benefits Committee (2)
• Safety Committee (0)
  • Air Traffic and Procedures Subcommittee (2)
  • Environmental Sustainability in Aviation Subcommittee (2)
• Scheduling Committee (7)
• Training Committee (3)
  • Checkmate (2 on 777 and 1 on 320)

If you would like to serve on one or more of these committees, visit the Member Engagement Portal.

Professional Standards FAQs

Since the program is voluntary, can a person choose not to be a part of the program?
The Professional Standards Program is completely voluntary. If you are approached by a committee volunteer, it is your choice whether to participate. However, please remember the choice to not participate may lead to the company resolving the issue at their sole discretion.

To read all of the FAQs, click here.

Professional Standards’ 24/7 hotline: 817-402-2181

If You’re 50, Join The Grey Eagles

Are you a pilot for American Airlines, at least age 50, active or retired? Please join The Grey Eagles for food, fun, and fellowship. We offer cruises, conventions, monthly luncheons, retirement dinners, professional mentoring, and assistance to surviving spouses – all for a one-time lifetime fee.

Pilot Job Fairs and Future Pilot Seminars

Future & Active Pilot Advisors’ next Pilot Job Fair and Future Pilot Seminar are scheduled for Aug. 19 at IAD. Click here for more information.

Industry News

For more about what’s happening in the industry, be sure to visit the Industry News page on AlliedPilots.org.