JetBlue airplane makes a flyover of New York Metropolis as a tribute to well being care staff and first responders, because it seen from Weehawken
JetBlue airplane makes a flyover of New York Metropolis as a tribute to well being care staff and first responders, because it seen from Weehawken in New Jersey on Might 7, 2020.
Kena Betancur | AFP | Getty Photos
JetBlue Airways and the labor union that represents the airline’s pilots have reached an settlement that avoids involuntary furloughs by way of April of subsequent yr, in response to a union memo despatched to pilots Wednesday.
The JetBlue chapter of the Air Line Pilots Affiliation voted to approve a letter of settlement that “protects all JetBlue pilots from involuntary furlough — below any circumstances — till Might 1, 2021,” mentioned the union memo, which was seen by CNBC. The airline had about 3,600 pilots and greater than 21,000 staff in complete, in response to its 2019 annual report.
JetBlue did not reply to a request for remark.
The settlement comes as strain is mounting on airways to slash prices because the Covid-19 pandemic continues to harm journey demand.
The JetBlue pilots’ union agreed to “short-term modifications” with an “earlier snapback if demand for flying recovers,” mentioned the memo, nevertheless it was not instantly clear what that entailed. The memo mentioned there will not be modifications to collective bargaining settlement pay charges or “important modifications” to work guidelines.
“On this atmosphere, that is the very best degree of codified pilot safety in our trade thus far,” mentioned the memo.
“Airline pilots have been on the entrance traces of this public-health disaster and had been a part of the primary wave of these instantly impacted by the related financial fallout,” the union mentioned in a press release to CNBC.
Main U.S. passenger airways accepted $25 billion in federal help this spring that prohibits them from shedding or chopping the pay charges of staff by way of Sept. 30. Executives have warned they count on to wish fewer staff and say they need to exhaust voluntary measures earlier than turning to layoffs.
American Airways on Tuesday informed staff that it expects to have as much as 8,000 flight attendants greater than it wants this fall. The airline had greater than 25,000 flight attendants as of the top of final yr.
“Whereas our surplus is evolving primarily based on our schedule plans and the objects I am going to define under, we count on to have an overage of between 7,000 and eight,000 flight attendants this fall,” Jill Surdek, senior vp of flight service mentioned in a workers observe. “This doesn’t imply we’ll furlough that many flight attendants, however it’s an overage we might want to tackle. Our objective is to cut back this quantity as a lot as potential by way of voluntary choices and dealing with the unions.”
The Fort Price-based airline can be planning to shut flight attendant bases in airports serving the Raleigh-Durham space and St. Louis, as income stays weak, Surdek mentioned. The provider can be shrinking a number of bases and decreasing staffing on wide-body planes used for transcontinental and worldwide routes.
Delta Air Strains informed pilots Friday that mentioned will warn greater than 2,500 of them this week about potential furloughs. The Atlanta-based provider urged eligible pilots to take early retirement packages, which embrace partial pay in some circumstances for 3 years.